Of Smoke and Stardust [[COMPLETE]]]

CHAPTER 1-ALYA

        If Alya hadn't already known, she'd never guess how well-crafted the officer's lies were.

        The signs were all over the place. The fidgeting, sweat trailing down his forehead despite the air-conditioned data archive chamber—and his speech patterns clearly showing the man was a budding liar. Not as good as like the others.

        It was the fourth meeting but still none of the Nova-Panos officials had spilled a word about mysterious vanishing of teenagers without any trace—mostly aged between thirteen-to-sixteen. And Alya couldn't help but suspect the possibility of something—or someone's influence behind their silence. Authority figures, no doubt.

        It was for the first time that Alya was part of a real investigation after her training in military intelligence, and definitely her first experience with the art of crafting lies for power.

        Alya had never been to Nova-Panos before—a small, rocky planet that was recently colonized by IGC. Unfortunately the Intergalactic Genere Corp hadn't offered any help in the investigation, and worse, they refused any truth behind the rumors. But Alya couldn't entirely dismiss the suspicion of unlawful slave trafficking that had recently snagged the attention of the Interplanetary Confederation, the intergovernmental organization responsible for the co-operation between the planets across the galaxy.

          Such hearsay would be unfavorable for the upcoming interplanetary election of the federation senator, and most definitely for the future of IGC. Obviously, they had their selfish reasons to deny such allegations.

        "We're wasting time," Nyx huffed in a low voice, chewing on a stray lock of her silver blunt-cut hair, her brows of same color furrowed in annoyance. For a halfling, Nyx bore more resemblance to humans than the Rietkels—at least in looks, with her temper, her Ritkel genes always won out. Alya couldn't blame her companion for her impatience. She, too, was not willing to entertain the hope of success after an entire day of disappointment. "We're outta luck, Al. I say we call it a day."

        "Could you be quite for two seconds?" Alya whispered back, in a voice far too low to be overheard by the officer in question. She cleared her throat and straightened, concentrating on the man before them—a planet native, with greyish-white skin, large black eyes and two slits for holes instead of a full nose. If there were any hints, she had to detect them from his tone, from his words. Returning empty handed was going to piss Captain Z off, which was definitely not preferable. "...so you're saying no missing children were reported?" They were speaking in the common tongue, which was required by all planetary inhabitants to learn.

        The Panos official nodded. "Like I said, we have a record of every citizen listed in our database—both natives and colonists. I've already shown you. I'm afraid I can't offer any assistance beyond that." His voice had a guttural accent to it that showed he wasn't the best speaker in the common language.

        Though Alya and Nyx had already double checked the current data record, every single name and their details, they hadn't found anything tampered with, which was more frustrating.

        "I would like to go through the population survey files from the past few years, if you have no objection." Underlying her polite tone was an authoritative command that only a fool would argue against. The Galaxy Hawks, an elite offshoot of the Galaxy Police Department. Defying them would mean defying the law itself. "My commanding officer has consulted with your superior regarding the investigation. I'm sure you would like to prove yourself worthy of your job you've been entrusted with, uh," she looked down at his name tag attached to his suit, "Mr. Cragsky?" Alya smiled up at him.