Fic: The Summer Intern (cont.) (PG-13 for violence)

[jeriendhal]

As they closed in on the map grid coordinates of the troupe of the missing joey, Skyler fiddled with the flyer's sensors, frowning to himself. Beside him, Freya looked at the control panel's display screen and asked, "Are you finding the troupe's com transmitter?"

"No, I'm not," he replied, lifting up his mirrorshades to get a better look at the screen. "I should have by now, unless it's broken."

"Or they disconnected the power pack," the ranger said worriedly.

"Why would they do that?" Nan asked, after trading a worried glance with her roommate.

"Don't know yet," Freya said. She blew out a breath and rubbed her ears. "Look, let's not get paranoid. This isn't the same troupe as the missing buck's and I can name a half-dozen reasons why their com unit might have gone offline unexpectedly. Skyler, put us down into the clearing nearest to their last transmitted position." It was a measure of her agitation, Nan thought, that Freya had to think for a moment before adding, "If you like," to avoid making it an order.

"Righto," Skyler said, dropping his mirrorshades back down over his eyes. He brought the flyer down into a grassy clearing about ten meters in diameter, landing with a thump that sent Nan's tail up into her shoulders. She clambered out after Skyer popped open the canopy, drawing her red slicker's hood over her head as a steady rain fell from the clouds. Nez followed her, glancing at the cargo compartment and shrugging, deciding to leave the overstuffed medical bag where it was until it was needed. All four of them stepped into forest, keeping the flyer in view while getting some cover from the rain.

"Hallooo!" Freya called out, cupping her paws to her mouth. There was no answer, her call being quickly absorbed by the rain and the surrounded fern bushes. She waited a moment, then called out twice more. After waiting almost ten minutes she shook her head. "If there was welcoming committee within a half a klick they should have been here by now," she said.

"What should we do?" Nez asked, hunching her head down as a fat droplet of rain dripped from a tree branch onto the back of her neck.

"Skyler, do you feel anything with your bion?" Freya asked.

The purple haired ferin closed his eyes, spurs rising up from his damp scalp. "There's a few weak bion trails nearby, days old." He pointed across the clearing to the eastern edge. "They're mostly going in that direction," he said.

"This is too strange. I'm going to call it in," Freya said. She touched the comset sitting in her ear. "Ranger Longwalk to Ranger Centre, come in please." She paused, frowning, ears turning back. "This is Ranger Freya Longwalk to Ranger Centre, acknowledge please."

"What's the matter?" Nan asked.

"No one's answering," Freya said, plucking the comset out of her ear and tapping at the power switch.

Nan tried to ignore the vague feeling of unease that was building in her belly. "Maybe we're out of range?" she ventured.

"Shouldn't be, it's a ground to orbit com," Freya said. She shoved it back into her ear and called again, then shook her head in frustration.

"You think it's being jammed?" Skyler asked.

"I don't... I don't know that," she replied uncertainly. Freya looked around at the trees that loomed over the clearing, ears still twitched back in worry. "Skyler," she said, "why don't you watch over the girls here, where it's out of the rain? I'm going to go back to the flyer and see if I can use its equipment to give us a signal boost."

"Okay, Freya," he agreed. The three of them stood in the lee of a large village tree as the wind picked up, sending the rain down at a forty-five degree angle, while Freya jogged quickly back to the flyer and started to unlatch the canopy.

A wave of heat blasted Nan's face as an invisible giant's hand shoved her hard in the chest and stomach, pushing her backwards to land painfully on the base of her tail. She tried to stand up, her paws sliding on the wet loam of the forest floor as she fell back again, a tinny noise filling her ears, deafening her as blotches of red and yellow pulsed across her vision, leaving her blind.

She blinked, vision clearing to see Nez kneeling in front of her, grabbing Nan by the shoulder to help her up. The blue wazagan shouted something, but Nan couldn't make it out. Behind Nez, Skyler lay on the ground, eyes closed, with what looked like half his scalp torn away as blood poured out from his head and over his face.

Nez shouted again. Nan thought she was still deaf, her roommate's words only a confusing, sibilant babble, until she realized Nez was using her native tongue instead of Galactic Standard. She shook her off, turning back towards the clearing, dreading what she would see.

In the center of the clearing was the remains of their flyer, engulfed in flames. Freya's burned and broken figure lay beside it, dead.

TBC

Author's Note: No hitting! Sorry folks, I knew Freya was going to be dead meat once I figured out the actual plot of the story. Don't worry, the ones who did this WILL get their just desserts.

Comments

[chaypeta.livejournal.com]

GAH!!!!
OMG... Freya. I nevr saw that coming. (sad... Freya was a great character.)
So the missing Joey was just a ruse. Was it meant for Teri and the Freya and co just got in the line of fire?

Hanging out for the next update... and hoping Skyler is okay.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Hey, you're alive! ;p Yeah, I'm going to miss her too, and the First One is going to be very much Not Happy when he finds out about it.

It'll all make sense in the next update or two. :)

[aynne-witch.livejournal.com]

gah! tooooo short!

grumble - gnash teeth

[mjkj.livejournal.com]

Wow, great one...

...never expected that - and now Nez' bag would be nice to have...

...if it were not in the flyer...

poor Freya - I really did like her - why could that explosion not have happened before she was too close... *sighs*

*looking forward to the next update*

mjkj

[lilfluff.livejournal.com]

Fine. No hitting. You did at least promise that just desserts would get served.

But you didn't say no growling. So I'm going to sit here and growl at you for a bit. :p

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Feel free. It'll be worth it to your reaction to Teri's reaction. :)