Losing it All
By Mapu
Disclaimer: Veritas: The Quest belongs to Touchstone and the ABC Corporation – this is just a throw away fanfic scene about the day Solomon finds his wife is gone.
Solomon leaned from the doors, watching the downdraft from the helicopter's rotors kicking up dust and debris from the camp site as they flew over it. On the ground several smaller items were knocked down and loose papers scattered into the air. He signalled the pilot to land them and waited impatiently until the skids touched the ground. The moment it was safe enough Zond jumped free of the transport and ran for the camp.
"Haley!" he shouted.
As feared there was no answer, but he had to keep trying again. "Haley… Nikko! Is anyone here?"
Silence greeted his call. It had been four days, four very long and frightening days since he'd last heard from his wife and son. He'd tried constantly for a full day to contact Haley before giving in to panic, then even with his best efforts, it had still taken him another three days to get to the camp. While on the way he had tried every hour to reach his family by the satellite link, with no success.
Running toward the main tent, Solomon stumbled over a tangle of broken metal mesh, the portable satellite dish he realised. It was a wreck, like much of the camp, but at least it explained the lack of contact. A small flame of hope flared in Zond's heart dampening out the fear. A simple communications failure – that's all it was… Haley and Nikko were fine. "Then why aren't they answering you?" doubt whispered in his mind.
It looked like looters, probably from the nearby village, had ransacked the place but although the supply tent was in ruins, the tent that had been Haley and Nikko's home for the last three weeks still stood intact. Solomon pulled aside the canvas covering the entry and went in.
Relief flooded though Zond in a dizzying rush, as he saw his son sitting quietly in the far corner of the virtually empty space. Nikko huddled in a ball, his thin arms holding his legs close to his body and his forehead resting against the peaks of his knees; the boy showed no response to Solomon's arrival.
"Nikko?" Solomon asked, kneeling before the child.
Reaching out he laid a gentle hand on the boy's back, and was shocked to discover the small body trembling with shivers. Peeling off his coat and wrapping the thick material around the boy's shoulders Zond tried again to get a response from his son. Failing, he slid a hand under the child's chin and raised the small face upward.
His son's face, grimy with dirt and tear tracks looked far too thin; it seemed as though the kid hadn't eaten in days. Where was the boy's mother? Haley was fiercely protective of her only child, and Solomon knew she would never have let the boy come to such a state if she'd been able to prevent it. The fear that had faded from Zond's heart returned with crushing weight. Nikko stared blankly ahead for several seconds before slowly shifting his gaze and coming to focus on Solomon's face.
Looking into those pale blue eyes, so similar to his mother's, Solomon read an incredible depth of loss, and in that moment he knew Haley was gone. He had lost his wife… he had lost it all.
Finita.