BADGE shuttle 4 descended from the station toward the planet’s surface. Inside the cabin, the artificial environment left the passengers unaware of the massive changes to gravity and air. The only two passengers were Gar and Strange Quark, with a robot at the helm.
“This is embarrassing,” Quark stated.
Gar said, “I like riding in shuttles. It is fun. Almost as fun as flying myself.”
“Yeah, well, I can zap myself across the same distance in milliseconds. I can cross dimensions that no one has ever heard of. And here I sit, a passenger on a shuttle.”
“At least I have company.” Gar attempted to shed some light on this.
Quark thought for a moment and then said, “I’m gonna do it.”
“Do what?”
“I will try to transport myself. I mean, I feel fine now. Just need to try harder.” He clenched his eyes shut and focused. Gar leaned over, highly intrigued. All at once, there came a great flash, and Quark was gone. However, instead of being absent, he was now a red duck.
Gar laughed. “That’s a good one. Red duck!”
“I DIDN’T MEAN TO TURN INTO A DUCK! AND WHY AM I RED!” Quark stomped his little webbed feet and quacked.
The computer called out, “Alert, alert, unregistered wildlife detected!”
“Oh, shut up!” Quark flashed again and was his normal self, though he was tangled in the seat belt. He struggled for a moment, and then Gar unfastened it and helped him out of his new predicament. “Thanks.”
“Seat belts are hard for me too. They are not made for wings my size.”
Refastening the belt, Quark said, “I just don’t know what to think. It’s like I’m losing my powers.”
“Uh...” Gar pointed at him.
“What?”
“Red.”
“Red?” Quark looked at his arm and then saw the striations of red going through his normal, blue complexion. “RED! WHAT THE?”
“Arriving in five minutes.” The robot announced.
Quark closed his eyes and his body returned to the normal blue tones. “Good, that’s all better now.”
The shuttle lowered through a dense cloud layer and landed on a helicopter pad outside a small airport.
***
At the busy California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, it was school day. A woman in an orange jacket led a group of school children into a room filled with rocks, gems, and other mineral oddities. The kids each looked at various signs and stones as they filled out their worksheets.
“This way, please.” She waved a hand at them.
The school teacher shooed the kids toward the docent, “Follow her. I know you have a worksheet to fill in, but you’ll have time. She’s going to show us something interesting.”
The docent smiled at the children with a patient silence while they gathered around a display in the middle of the room. There was a pedestal with a cloth covering a small dome. Next to it was another woman, checking the lights.
The docent spoke after the children were focused on her. “Okay, thank you. Today I’m going to show you something exciting. The scientific world is a place where new discoveries are celebrated. Each time we find something we don’t understand, that only means we are about to grow in our knowledge about the world around us. Yes?” She pointed at a little boy in the back.
“I gotta pee.”
The class teacher shuffled the boy off toward the restroom.
The docent continued, “Recently, we have discovered a new mineral that is baffling scientists across the globe. To make this discovery even more baffling to us, this gem was found on the ocean floor by an expedition to research bottom feeders. It was brought here only a few days ago, where it will stay until it moves to a laboratory for further research. We are very lucky to have the opportunity to show it to the public before it is fully researched.”
She turned and walked over to the stand where that other woman was still working. A quiet pause came. In a hushed voice, the docent asked the other woman, “What are you doing here?”
Chase, dressed in the same orange outfit as any other museum worker, looked up. “I was just checking on the security. This is my first day and I don’t want any problems.”
“Oh, good. Uh, if you would stand back, I need to keep these kids’ attention.”
“Of course.” Chase stepped out of the velvet corded circle and then casually walked away.
The docent returned to the class and slipped off the cloth. “This registers as a ruby, but there are elements to it that make little sense. First, we have...yes, what?” she addressed the hand of a little girl in the front.
“What ruby?”
Only
now did the docent look to see that the beautiful case and clear
glass holder with nothing on it.
“It was there just moments
before the class...that woman!” She grabbed her walkie talkie and
mashed a button. “Security, we have a theft. The woman just left
the gem room with our new ruby!”
Almost instantly, security was all over the place, buzzers sounded, and doors locked.
The docent addressed the frightened children, “Don’t be alarmed. We have this well in hand. People try to steal stuff all the time, but we are...”
Just then a man in a security uniform looked in the room. “Did you see her?”
“Yes, she left here just before I notified of the theft.”
“I know. But we can’t find her.”
“That’s impossible, it would take her half an hour to get to an outside door from this room, she has to be in the building.”
“We’re still looking, just keep the kids in this room.” The man ran off, hollering into his walkie talkie.
***
Gar and Quark waited in the small, quaint Parliament building of Reykjavik, Iceland. A few of the parliament members stopped by to welcome them or ask a question before moving on to a meeting.
A man came in with a box in his hands. “Oh, here ya are. President Jóhannesson sends his apologies. Very busy day. We do hope you can return these when you are done with them.” He opened the box to reveal two red shards.
Quark answered, “Sure thing. Just keeping them safe from bad people. Well, you know, BADGE sent the memo to everyone.”
“Ya. Take good care of them now.”
Gar reached over and took the shards, placing them in a secured container from BADGE. “Thank you for helping.”
They left the building, stepping out into the chilly air. Just as Quark was about to complain about the cold, both of their comm devices went off. Gar tapped his and Nova came through.
“Gar, Quark, we have a situation. Apparently, one shard was just stolen from San Francisco.”
Quark asked, “Krampus again?”
“Not sure. From the reports, it was a woman, and she didn’t do any harm. So far, Krampus has left a trail of blood each time he has taken one. This doesn’t seem like his M.O.”
“What is mo?” Gar asked.
Nova said, “Later. Anyway, this could mean we have a jewel thief after these. You will meet a specialist at the next destination, he will help you find this thief. Meet him in Knoxville, Tennessee. They have a shard at the University. Collect it and coordinate efforts with the contact.”
“Understood,” Gar answered.
Quark squared his jaw and said, “No time for problems. We have to move.” He grabbed Gar’s arm, and both vanished...then reappeared five feet further. Gar fell over and Quark face-planted in the dirt. His muffled voice said, “damn.”
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