Waiting Shapeless

Chapter 43. Orbiting Gnumus

Tyler: Human

The team was near the Circuit mothership now.

The five of them were anxious about this confrontation. Not only were they confronting the most powerful Circuit in the Pentaverse, but they were doing so on the largest, most defended Circuit ship in the entire Circuit armada. If the Circuit Queen was the killer, they were on very dangerous grounds.

Bryalnus saw the dilemma. He was not about to march his small, defenseless team of five into a den of lions.

So the CSC team was going to stand aside and let the PPF do the work this time.

They had presented their case to the PPF, explained their concerns with the present task, and asked for a number of agents to assist them in confronting and possibly arresting the Circuit Queen.

The PPF was obviously concerned about the loss of their six other agents on Gnumus, and decided that the remainder of the mission would be better handled by the PPF.

They had sent one thousand troops to confront the Queen with.

Tyler and the team saw the group of PPF ships hovering around the large Circuit station as they approached. None of the ships were being fired at, a good sign that things hadn't turned hostile.

From their understanding, the large PPF fleet had been investigating the mothership for a few hours now. Though they had yet to hear from the police force concerning the situation.

The call came in through the message system shortly after. "Captain Byralnus, I see that your ship is close on my radar." Called a female voice on the ship's intercom system. "Are you receiving this?" The voice sounded slightly perturbed.

It was the lead PPF agent that had been assigned to their mission.

Byralnus quickly adjusted the input on the cockpit computer and responded. "Yes, Officer. We are here. What is going on over there? How is the progress?"

Byralnus quickly waved the whole team over to him. They rapidly filled the cockpit, surrounding Byralnus at the controls as they anxiously waited to hear what was going on.

There was silence on the other line for a brief moment. Then the line opened up again. "...Yes.... Captain? We've searched the entire station."

"You've... searched it?" Asked Byralnus in confusion. They all looked around at each other. "Searched it... for the Queen?"

"Captain," sounded the voice bluntly, "there are no Circuits on board."

It took a moment for that to sink in.

What?? Thought Tyler as she listened in more intently.

The entire team was speechless.

"Officer..." Said Byralnus, blatant confusion spread across his face. "Come again? There are... no Circuits on board??"

The line was silent. Then, it buzzed open again. "We agree that this seems to be the Circuit mothership, but there are no Circuits here."

"What does that mean?" Muttered Bai.

"Maybe..." Said Jirabi thoughtfully, keeping his voice low. "Maybe they aborted the ship once they discovered we were coming back? That just makes the Queen look even more suspicious."

"Yes but how could they get every Circuit off that ship so fast?" Questioned Byralnus.

"That's true." Muttered Jirabi. "A smaller station could have cleared out fairly easily, but the Mothership station... There were millions of Circuits on that ship..."