Gone & Missing

[Toaster]

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” The man stammered. “Just leave me-”

He went quiet as he watched Beige reach into his trenchcoat and pull out a small handgun, laying it on the table between them with the barrel aimed square at his chest. The mercenary smiled at him calmly.

“Listen, I’d hate to hurt you,” Beige spoke in a friendly tone. “But if you don’t help me out here…” He trailed off, tapping a finger on the pistol’s grip.

The man fidgeted anxiously, his eyes shooting back and forth between the friendly face and the gun before him. Finally, he slumped together, resigned.

“I don’t wanna think about it,” he mewled. Beige leaned forward.

“Go on.”

“We… were hired as escorts. It was supposed to be a simple job with a big payout. Haul some shit to a small depot out near the Tokelau cloud.” The man spoke quickly, as though he didn’t want his mind to linger on the memories any longer than necessary. “Sure, the route was all scuffed. Fucking Omicrons, right?” He chuckled to himself nervously. “Beta was alright. And we were almost through Minor when... “ He stopped, squeezing his eyes shut.

“When what?” Beige pried. He leaned in closer yet, not wanting to miss out on any detail.

“Something attacked us. In the nebula.”

Beige could feel his heart sink.

“Jelkin’s disappeared off our scanners first,” the man went on. “He screamed and was just gone.” He glanced up at Beige. “Your girl went after him.” Fear entered his eyes. “Then she was gone, too.”

Beige swallowed hard.

“What do you mean, ‘gone’”?

The man stared at him, wide-eyed.

“Gone, man! Off the scanners! Off comms!”

Beige clenched his jaw.

“Then something came out of the clouds at us,” the man continued, beads of sweat forming on his brow. “Never seen anything like it. Didn’t look human-made. Not Nomad either. It plowed right through the transport. Tore it right in half!” He shifted again. “Rudy and I, we fucking ran. Gunned it towards the jumphole. We were almost there, when Rudy just popped. His ship just blew up right next to me. And then I went through.”

The man glanced around the bar anxiously, as though afraid that whatever he had come across in the Edge was still after him. After a moment, he turned back to face Beige, his face completely colorless, his lips dry.

“They’re all gone, man!”

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Olivia Sable