Diell Breaker (LGBT- Sci-Fi - Romance)

Chapter 16

Chapter 16 

Petrov gathered his squad of volunteers together and in less than half an hour they were all piling out of the shuttle onto Fayruz. He was slightly disconcerted to see First Lieutenant Shehu already there, talking to Cheung. Both men stopped talking and turned to look at him. Had they found Rhys already? He hurried over. 

"Have you found him, sir?"  

Cheung shook his head. "Not yet." There was no Patrol station on Fayruz as yet, so Cheung as First Lieutenant on the Voyager, was running the investigation.  

"I've got a couple of teams conducting a house to house search, there aren't that many houses so it shouldn't take long. However, I've spoken to the staff who were on duty last night at the Three Suns. One of them knows Owen by sight and confirmed he was in there by himself until shortly after 21:00. The waiter said he appeared to be waiting for a call because as soon as he got it, he went into the restroom to spruce up and then went out, presumably to meet someone in the back courtyard." 

"No-one saw him after that?" Petrov asked.  

"No. I really want to speak to the man he was meeting, I'm assuming it was a man. Hopefully he can tell us what happened." 

Shehu spoke for the first time, looking a little self conscious, his eyes sliding away a couple of times before he could meet his gaze. He hadn't spoken to Petrov since their discussion yesterday, however he appeared genuinely concerned, "I'm sorry Petrov, Cheung told me Owen is a friend of yours." 

"Yes, it's no secret, Rhys and I were lovers for about six months. We broke up a few months before I transferred to the Diell. I had no idea he'd got a job on the Voyager until I ran into him the other day." For some reason he wanted Shehu to have that information as much as Cheung. 

"To my knowledge there are only two oms living here in town, and they're a couple, and another two on the Voyager," said Cheung. "I've spoken to all four but he wasn't with any of them."  

"I was on the Diell from about 14:00," Petrov volunteered. 

"Yes, I know," Cheung agreed. He looked only faintly apologetic. "I checked you out first." 

Shehu frowned but Petrov didn't take offence. He would have checked out the ex-lover too if he'd been in Cheung's position. 

"I've sent out a request for whoever met Owen last night to contact me, but I haven't had any response yet," Cheung continued. "It's looking increasingly likely that our person of interest does not admit that he's an om, at least in public, which will make it a lot harder to track him down if he doesn't come forward voluntarily." 

"Are you searching the forest and surrounding area at all?" Petrov asked, changing the subject. He felt in a very awkward position. He couldn't tell Cheung about the Captain, that he had been the one meeting Rhys in the courtyard and he could only hope it wasn't going to be crucial to the investigation. For the first time, the thought entered his head that he should really check the time Farrell returned to the Diell. Just because he was his Captain, didn't mean he was above suspicion, after all the Captain was a very strong man, what if they'd had a fight and- 

"Now that you're here," Cheung broke into his thoughts, "I thought I'd ask a couple of your men to take the flyers up, do a heat scan of the surrounding area. I'm hoping he's still somewhere fairly close by." As far as Cheung was concerned, the discarded wristcom was clear evidence that Rhys had not left the Three Suns voluntarily. He didn't tell Petrov, but he also intended to ask the men to keep an eye out for any patches of recently disturbed ground.  

"Lieutenant!" Cheung was hailed by one of his crew, coming hastily towards him. "One of the locals found this in the forest, to the north of the town. Do you reckon this belongs to Owen?" He held out his hand, displaying a simple gold stud, the kind men often wore in their ears. Petrov stepped forward to have a closer look, without touching it. "It could be," he commented. "I know Rhys had some like that." 

"I marked the spot sir," the crewman reported. 

"Good. Run this over to the medic would you? Ask her to do a DNA check for us?" The crewman nodded and left. "I'm going with the assumption this belongs to Owen," Cheung announced. "I'll get the flyers to concentrate on the northern side and send the search parties to help out on the ground." He proceeded to issue instructions accordingly. 

A few minutes later the crewman reported back, "It's a match for Owen's DNA sir." He added scrupulously, "There's also DNA from two other people, mine and the man who found it, Peterson." 

Cheung nodded, that was to be expected. "Right, let's move it everyone." 

Petrov decided to accompany the crewman back to the place the stud was found, where the ground search would start. He knew it was wishful thinking but he hoped he might find something else there which would help. His mind was busy trying to deduce what had happened. Assuming for the moment that the Captain had left Rhys alone in the courtyard as he had said, then what had occurred to cause his wristcom to be left there and an earstud to be found half a kay away in the forest?  

If Rhys hadn't dropped his wristcom and absconded for some inexplicable reason then it was obvious someone else had met him, or found him there, and carried him off. Why the forest though? Were there any caves nearby? He wouldn't let himself consider the option that Rhys had been killed behind the Three Rings and his body removed. He knew Cheung feared that was what had happened but he had to keep thinking Rhys was alive and could be rescued until he was presented with solid evidence to the contrary. 

After awhile he became aware that Shehu was walking silently beside him, keeping him company. "Owen was the man you told me about? The ex-lover you ran into?" Eventually Shehu spoke, seeking confirmation. 

"Yes. You saw me talking to him yesterday, after uh, um, before we went and had coffee." Petrov didn't know why he felt awkward referring to the pass Shehu had made, but he did. 

"Ah. The young man with blond hair?" 

Petrov nodded. They had reached the edge of the forest and were walking along the narrow beaten path, the fronds brushing the legs of their uniforms. The day was heating up and Shehu rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, exposing black curly hair over strong forearms. He was a man who needed to shave twice a day and he already had a dark shadow on his jaw, his moustache covering his upper lip entirely.  

He was silent for a minute. Then, "Do you still have feelings for him?" he asked in a low voice. 

"Not that kind!" Petrov was quick to deny. He could see Shehu wasn't convinced. "I just want him to be safe. Whatever he's done he doesn't deserve to die for it." He didn't think the other man fully believed him but he realised that to protest again would only have the opposite effect. He continued, "I know this isn't the best time to talk about this, but I think I'm more interested in someone else." He flicked a glance sideways. 

Shehu's eyes flew to his. Why was Petrov telling him this? Had he found somebody new, or-? He held his breath. 

Petrov cast a casual glance around to make sure no-one was too close, then reached out and ran a finger surreptitiously up and down the bare skin of his arm, as Shehu had done to him in the shower block. He continued walking, the colour high on both cheeks. "We can talk again when Rhys is found, if you're still interested." 

Shehu stood stock still, frozen to the spot for several seconds. Then he hurried after Petrov, "Sweet god yes, I'm interested! Are you serious, do you mean it?" His heart was in his mouth. He wanted to keep talking, find out exactly what Petrov meant but already other members of the search party were drawing near. He wondered if they could drop behind for a moment, just the two of them, but it was too late, they had all reached the spot where someone had found the gold stud. 

"You'll have to wait and see." Petrov flashed him a brief, provocative smile. "It will give us both an incentive to find Rhys as fast as possible."  

Was Petrov teasing him or not? Shehu couldn't tell, but he was already breathing harder in anticipation of finding out. Now he really, really wanted someone, anyone, to find Rhys. Maybe he could offer a reward!