By late morning the storm had lightened to a steady rain – still technically a downpour but at least it wasn't raining sideways anymore. It had been what the local Dreen called a "mild hurricane", with sustained winds of 'only' seventy miles an hour and gusts approaching ninety. But the university and its attached facilities were built to withstand the weather, and the locals were accustomed to the seasonal tantrums. After breakfast Nina asked, "Mind if I use your terminal for a bit? My tablet needs to charge."
Ardus shook his head, collecting the dishes. "Not at all, can I help you find something?"
"Nah, I had an idea that might help Boda, but I want to see if I can get a connection to the Fed hub first. If I can link back to my alma mater's library with my credentials I can look up what I need, but if I can't I'll have to make a request via the Fed's channels. It shouldn't take long."
"An idea that might help, eh?" Ardus rinsed his cup. "What might that be?"
"Nothing yet. I'm not really even sure what I'm looking for, but I feel like I'll know it when I see it."
With a shrug Ardus returned to the plates. When they were washed and drying on the rack, he found that Nina had stacked some manuals in his office chair and was browsing through a catalog of documents written in a language he couldn't read, and therefore couldn't snoop over her shoulder. Still, the sight of her propped up in his chair amused him and Ardus found reasons to pass by the open door so he could watch her swing her legs and on occasion stand on the chair in order to reach the far keys or peer closely at the screen. Every so often she would scribble something on a notepad with intense concentration, her bottom lip pinched in her teeth. On one of these trips to peek at her Ardus discovered that he was missing a text from his personal library. "I must have left it in my office," he said.
Nina shifted on the tall chair. "You can go if you need to, I don't need looking after."
Ardus nodded. He knew that, but after Major Birch's appearances the previous day he didn't feel completely secure in letting her out of his sight. Stop it, she is not going anywhere. Neither O'Connell nor Yang had reported any symptoms like Boda's or any of the other affected Dreen, and Athe had reported that Boda was in stable condition. As long as the port situation did not escalate, Ardus believed he had no reason to worry that the Federation would appear and snatch his starfish while he was out. "I will only be a short while, perhaps an hour. I will send a message when I reach my office."
"Ardus," Nina set down her mug, "I'll be fine. No one can get in that door unless they have your key code or a rocket launcher, and I won't let anyone in unless I know who they are. If Birch shows up I'll pretend I'm not here. He can come back when he has a Federation warrant and five friends. Go! I'm a big girl, I can handle an hour by myself." She gave him one of her beautiful smiles, all flashing white teeth and adorable dimples, and the ice-cold worry in Ardus's chest began to warm.
He shook his head, "What am I going to do with you?"
"Come back with that book and we'll find out," Nina said, dimples deepening.
He stepped out into the rain, catching a runnel of cold water down the back of his tunic as he turned to close the door behind him. He squinted into the rain, peering across the apartment complex's lawn looking for humans. He saw none, and snorted at his irrational worry. But the hard, heavy ball of tension that had formed in his belly when Nina first mentioned the evacuation dragged at him like a diving belt weighted with huge stones. The black kelp he'd drank for breakfast left an astringent taste in his mouth and upset his stomach. I should not have eaten, he chided himself, but then I would feel even worse.
The rain pelted him with large, fat cold drops splatting against his face, bursting against his nictitating membranes, vaguely salty from the sea and smelling of wet sand. The occasional gust of wind pushed at him as he walked along the edge of the embankment, no stronger than the average beach blow, and as he passed a certain arrangement of boulders he thought back on the day he'd sent Nina out to gather shells. He looked for the spot where he'd watched her come out of the water, her blue suit painted wetly on her skin and her long hair dripping. Even then he'd been utterly fascinated by her body, well aware that his interest went beyond academic. He smiled, remembering that day on the beach as well as a more recent one and a much smaller bathing suit. Of the two, the pink one was his favorite. Though if I had my choice, she would swim naked as I do.
The text he was looking for, Principles And Practices of Conservation by a promising naturalist from Ardus's own southern continent, had been placed on a shelf at Nina's eye level, rendering it nearly invisible to his own. Ardus retrieved it and went looking for something to wrap it in that would keep it dry in the gale. He made a round to Meem's laboratory and checked the progress of her worms and the ongoing venom extraction.
"Nia thinks she's almost got the titration right," Meem told him, her nostrils visibly flaring at the muted scent of his musk. There wasn't much he could do about that, so Ardus turned his head away whenever she gave him a cautiously knowing look. The lights overhead flickered, the wind hammering relentlessly against the outside walls. The bluebacks were nervous, squeaking and huddling together on the floor of their cage. A tank of black runner lizards rustled beneath an insulation cover, their claws skittering in the sand as they darted anxiously. Only the worms and other water-dwelling creatures were calm, secure in their safety surrounded by the nearly-unbreakable glass of their tanks and round-the-clock monitoring by Meem and her laboratory assistants.
Ardus swished a finger across the surface of the water, stirring the worms' attention and coaxing one up to test the tip of his finger with the projections around its slimy maw. Deftly he scooped the worm into his hand – careful to keep the sharp stinger pointed well away from him – and palpated its body, feeling for muscle tone. "This one is feeling a bit fat, I suggest increasing their protein intake for a few weeks."
Meem agreed and made note of his instruction on her tablet. "Right, first thing in the morning. I'll have Doctor Nina assist with the formula while she's helping me with venom extraction – we'll have to account for it during the next few cycles, any diet change might affect production."
Ardus nodded along, turning the worm over in his hands and inspecting its belly. "How soon will you have the results?"
"A week, maybe two. Right now there are chemical simulations running on the university's servers – I asked Runo to set them up this morning but they'll take a few days to complete, and when they're done I'll have to go over them with Nia. I'm actually just about to wrap up here for the day, since there's not much else I can do except wait for the data." Meem paused, her head tilting prettily to one side as she listened to the rain outside. "It sounds like it's finally letting up out there, doesn't it?"
Ardus nodded, "Yes it does-" His head snapped up – the sound outside had softened to a steady hiss, nothing like the thunderous hammering from earlier. Ardus's heart thudded painfully – Fed shuttles can't get off the ground if it keeps raining like it is – and he thought of the tiny woman back at his apartment, alone. "It does! I am sorry Meem, I need to go – finish what you are doing, upload your next report to the university drive. If Nia asks I will be at home." Ardus returned the worm to its tank with a splash, stripping off his smock and draping it over a stool. He ducked through the laboratory door and started off at a hurried walk back towards his office. He snatched Principles and Practices off of his desk and tucked it under his tunic, leaving in such a rush he left his office lights on and the door partially open.
The rain gushed down, dribbling under his collar front and back and soaking the gathered hem of his trousers. Saturated sand clung to his feet, the downpour turning low-lying dunes into a slurry of grit and salty water. He didn't need his nictitating membranes and the rain sluiced down from his barbels and ran freely over his eyes in sheets, turning the world into a wavering grey-blue haze. Ardus reached his building at a trot, puffing less from the effort and more from the anxiety, and searched the building again for humans. Letting himself into his apartment he called for Nina. He met with silence. "Nina?" he called again, his heart in his throat as the apartment answered him with silence.
Someone had interrupted her while she was working – her tablet and a stack of books were still on the short table in the front room of the apartment, along with a half-finished cup of tea and a bit of their breakfast leftovers stacked on a plate, one bite missing. He searched the table-top for a note and found nothing. Ardus rushed back through the short hallway, back to his bedroom, hoping beyond reason that Nina had decided to take a nap in his bed or perhaps borrow his shower. Both rooms were silent, empty and dark.
Collapsing to his knees, Ardus clutched at his chest with one hand and his other furrowed the plaster wall with its claws. His heart stumbled, stopped, and lurched several times as he gasped for air between wrenching stabs of pain and waves of anguish. "No, no! Omi, no! Nina, my starfish! Omi, Aku, please-" Another surge of agony swept through him like the storm had swept through the city, but instead of leaving sand and torn tallgrass this tempest left Ardus bleak and his veins running ice-cold. His arms and chest flared with white and yellow lights, his Collar of Aku pulsing orange with fear.
Nina – his Nina – was gone, his beautiful tiny starfish who whipped him into a flurry like a waterspout whipped the sea into greenish-white foam, who clung to him like seaweed when he rocked her in his arms and called to him like the great creatures of the ocean he'd spent three-quarters of his long life studying, vanished from his home, the safest place she could possibly be! Why did I leave? Someone had come and taken her, he was absolutely certain of that. In the short (all too short) time he'd known her, Ardus knew Nina wouldn't leave without trying to contact him or leaving a note, and she wasn't the type to leave food lying out if she had to step away. His hand crept up to his throat, his claws digging into his skin as he struggled to breathe despite the iron grip around his lungs. Gods, why did I leave her alone!
Choking on panic, Ardus stared ahead at the empty front room and the round hassock Nina used as a chair and struggled to make sense of it. The tide of fear, shock and loss swept in memories Ardus had spent nearly two decades trying to keep in check – waking up one morning and finding Timam cold beside him, unresponsive, hours beyond saving. Calling out to Athe in blind terror, shaking her and attempting to resuscitate until medical staff pried his hands away from her body, Athe gripping them with his own shaking hands until blood dripped from his knuckles as his claws pierced the thick hide. Watching his pores die, sometimes one or two at a time and sometimes entire sections of his skin flickering, fading, dimming until he felt as dark and lifeless as he looked. The first night he went completely dark, lying alone in his sleeping niche consumed by shadows, and the long years after lost in a fog of work to stave off the crushing loneliness. I cannot do this again, I cannot go dark again, I will not survive it if I lose my light again...
But the same adrenaline that constricted his chest pumped fresh blood into his brain, and Ardus's mind kicked into gear as his training as a scientist began to search for answers. Yes, Nina had likely not left of her own accord, but that didn't mean she was gone forever. Ardus's hand left his throat and combed instead through his barbels, thinking. There was no evidence to suggest that she'd been hurt, and despite the impulsiveness that made Nina such an entertaining challenge to work with she wasn't the type to do anything rash enough to harm herself. She would have gone against her choosing but without putting up a physical fight – though she certainly would have made her displeasure known. I am sure she did not go quietly! Yes, tiny as she was Nina would have let everyone in earshot know she wasn't happy. Ardus let out a short laugh at the idea. She is a fighter, that much I know. Yes, she is certainly alive, and while she is there is still a chance to find her and bring her back. But where would they take her?
Ardus was confident that Birch was responsible for Nina's disappearance, and it stood to reason that he would have taken her – and perhaps the other humans – where it would be easiest to keep eyes on her. Aside from Birch Ardus had not seen any other humans besides Nina, Doctor Yang and Doctor O'Connell; it might be necessary to keep them confined while Birch arranged for transport. The Port of Dreenai came to mind at first, but Ardus dismissed that idea since the Port didn't frequently house travelers – not yet, at least. And with Nina certainly being loudly unhappy with her situation, Birch would want to keep her where her displeasure wouldn't disturb others.
A location that was secure, separate from the general population, designed to keep loud, unhappy persons confined until they settled down or could be moved to another location... Like his pores relighting, the answer came to him with startling brightness and Ardus stood, plaster crumbling from the wall under his claws as he leveraged himself to his feet. His Collar of Aku lit in a flare of yellow and orange, the colors rippling up his face and down his chest and arms until his wrists glowed banded in purple and red. Hurricane thunder rumbled up from his chest as Ardus left his home, out into the pouring rain where a rare burst of lightning crackled overhead and burned a white scar against the clouds. There is a story, Ardus thought as his nictitating membranes flickered over his sea-blue eyes, of how Aku came to rescue Omi from a sea creature who wanted to drag her down into the sea and use her light to brighten the depths... I will find you, starfish, I will bring you home!