Lieutenant Joel Wong looked at the young private assigned to him for the day. The captain thought familiarizing the twenty Ground Command troops to the ship would be a good start. After a tour of the entire ship, which took over five hours, Lieutenant Commander Stone split the troops up and stationed them to different departments on the ship.
Private Freddie Noap was to accompany Wong for the remainder of the day to learn about the ship's propulsion. While he was there, Stone gave his the extra duty to map out strategic and vantage points of the entire section. Standing in the engine room Wong couldn't help but feel that the attention of the young private was somewhere else.
“Private Noap, did you hear what I just said?”
“Sir!” Noap stood at in attention.
“At ease kid. Wow, you guys really don't respond to anything unless it comes as a command.”
“Sorry! Sir!”
“Okay, chill kid. I asked if this was your first mission into deep space.”
Wong watched as Noap's face softened and his shoulders relaxed. The kid was young, he couldn't be more than nineteen, at most. Wide-eyed and eager, Wong immediately grew a liking to him. While Noap looked every bit like the rough and tough Ground Command soldier on the outside, Wong wondered if the new surroundings was a little intimidating to the boy.
“Yes sir, in fact, this is my first deployment outside Earth.”
“Well I'm glad you're here then. Don't worry about it you'll get the... Private, you've drifted off again, what is the matter with you? What in the world could be so intriguing?” Wong followed Noap's gaze and saw that he was staring at H'loor, one of the eleven remaining T'aal on board Starlight.
Wong pulled the boy away and they went behind a wall. Standing just inches away from Noap with his hands still on the private's shoulders, Wong was amazed how good he smelt and how firm his muscles were.
“What is it?”
“Sorry sir, it's just that I've never seen a T'aal before, not this close anyway.”
“How can that even be? The T'aal have been on Earth for over twenty years.”
“At Ground Command we don't allow anyone... not like us.”
Wong had heard that Ground Command training were pretty reclusive; isolating themselves for long stretches of time perfecting their skill. Whenever they were deployed to handle a situation, they would come, seize control and then leave. Two wars in the last hundred years were quickly brought to an end by Ground Command. For the longest time they were known as the most efficient attack force in the world.
“So let me get this straight. You guys are not allowed to have sex, can't leave the base for more than twenty-four hours, and you have never even seen a T'aal?”
“We train really hard sir,” said Noap wryly.
“Yeah, but surely you've watched entertainment programs on the holonet, right?”
Noap gave him a look and Wong shook his head in amazement.
“I guess you guys really do take your training pretty seriously.”
“When you're always on a high level readiness you really don't have time to -”
It took Wong a few seconds before he realized what had happened. He blinked a few times just to make sure. Noap was gone.
Wong stepped over to the nearest console and punched a few commands on the holoscreen. His heart raced as his fingers danced over the projected interface. Then the alarms rang ship wide.
“Security! We have a possible abduction! Private Noap has just disappeared!” pressed down on his scarab and yelled over the klaxon as calmly and clearly as he could.
“Lieutenant, report to the conference room,” it was Stone's voice over the comm. “He may not be the only one.”
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