Tracks in the Sand
Peter walked into the pantry. The turnip/ grub meal hadn't been very satisfying and he needed something compensatory from the food dispenser. Unfortunately, the machine was largely disassembled while a little raccoon sat amidst the parts, screwing them further apart.
"Rocket! Not the food dispenser! What are you doing?"
"I'm makin' a device that can look through the outer hull structure. Need a few coils from this machine."
"I'm hungry."
"What do ya prefer, Quill, a greasy bite or yer crew member back? Take some fruit from the left storage closet. I heard they taste like apples."
With reluctance, Peter grabbed one of these far too healthy products of nature and chewed it noisily.
"Can ya do that somewhere else? I need ta concentrate."
Not much later, Rocket and Groot were repeating their search pattern on the outside of the Milano. The ring-tailed engineer held his improvised Eddy current device in one hand and his view screen in the other. Now he could spot irregularities hidden under the coating, deeper within the metal.
After five minutes, he discovered a circular pattern in a lower part of the hull. He asked his buddy to hand him a cutting torch. He cut a surrounding circle through the metal. When the cutting fell out, he shone a light inside and grinned. A flat, round device had been attached to an inner layer of the hull.
The crafty mammal stuck his arm into the hole, cautiously deactivating the magnetic coupling of the device and took it out.
Triumphantly he marched into the Milano and walked towards Peter. He reported, "I've got good news an' bad news. The bad news is, I cut a hole in yer crate. Ya might want ta weld it back in place. The good thing is: I found this gizmo."
"Great work, Rocky! Groot, can you help me fix the hole?"
The tree-man and Peter went outside to repair the small damage.
Meanwhile, the clever mammal started to tinker with the tracking device. It was a quantum link tracker. He knew that this gadget had a booby-trap and couldn't just be unscrewed. Making a complete scan first to study the inner composition wasn't advisable either, because that could sever the quantum link with the source. He hoped to be able to dismantle it partially and reverse the tracking system somehow to find the crooks who were using it.
He used the kitchen table as a workbench. With precision clamps, he fixated the little machine. He meticulously made a partial scan without disturbing the quantum mechanism, to reveal a section of the internal structure he was looking for.
By the time Groot and Star-Lord came back in, he had drilled a set of minuscule holes into the device to block the anti-tampering system. With a laser cutter, he removed a part of the upper cover. Cautiously he defused the explosive charge.
Gamora observed him, standing motionlessly in the doorway of the kitchen. When the brave raccoon had taken out the miniature bomb, she breathed out almost unnoticeably. Rocket looked up and saw her. She applauded silently and spoke,
"So you managed to keep all your fingers attached."
"Gamora, what can I do fer ya? It seems I have time on my hands."
"You have an explosive quantum tracker on your hands," she joked. She walked slowly into the kitchen and sat down. "What are you going to do next?"
"Are you an expert?"
"I've seen these before. Usually there's a quantum-locked pair."
"That's the general idea. If the pair is symmetric, we can reverse the transponder. It jes' takes a bit of higher quantum mechanics."
Groot came in. His friend looked at him and said, "Say Groot, ya once told me ya had quantum mechanics in kindergarten?"
The tree-man replied proudly, "I am Groot."
"That too, huh? Then get yer ass over here, I need ya ta work on somethin'."
Gamora looked surprised. Since this trip she had learned that the big tree had more in store than she had given him credit for. She was tempted to ask more questions, but instead she decided to keep her silence and just moved to the doorway to let the two work undisturbedly.
Rocket talked to Groot about signal lines, qbits and encryption algorithms. It sounded exotic, but the Flora Colossus just nodded and made a remark from time to time. Rocket used his comments to create a program on his transparent view screen (the device was fitted with computational power). Finally, he connected a cable with a smart plug into the partially opened tracker. The plug spawned a fine comb of wires that automatically attached themselves to each available connexion point in the little machine. He inserted the other end of the cable into his view/ calculation device.
After a few test runs, he cursed, "D'ast, I get an asymmetric signature. We can't reverse this thing. They have frickin' advanced equipment at the other side."
His friend said, "I am Groot."
"Ya think so? That'll collapse the quantum functions; we only got one shot."
"What is he proposing?" Gamora asked.
"We can force an echo feedback. The echo signal can be used ta calculate a number of spatial regions. That way, we still don' have exact positions, but it's better than nothin'."
With Groot's help, he changed the algorithm. Now Peter was leaning against the doorway too. Gamora kept him informed by whispering what she knew. After a short while, the mammal and tree were confident that their attempt would work. Rocket pushed a button. His screen displayed a number of coordinates. White smoke emerged from the tracker. Finally, it made a plopping sound and died.
"Do you have the data, Rocky?" Peter was curious to know.
"Processin'. Hmm, this ain't so good," he said with frustration in his voice. "I've got about twenty space bubbles with diameters of 10 to 100 light-years. It's still a needle in a haystack. By the time we arrive at one of the enclosed star systems, Drax may already be gone to another place."
"Look at it from the bright side," Peter said, "now they won't see us coming."
"Yeah, but we need ta do more. I suggest we follow his tracks in the village to see if we can come up with somethin'."
"I agree. Let's see how good a bounty hunter you are."
"I'm the best," the furry mammal said. He meant it.
The team decided that Peter should stay with the ship because his leg hadn't healed yet. The Star-Lord moved the Milano to a spot close to the village. Rocket activated a pattern recognition algorithm for Drax's footsteps on his view screen and handed it to Groot. If the warrior had walked somewhere, his prints would show up in purple on the device.
Gamora, Groot and Rocket entered the village, moved over the broad middle road and stopped at the souk. There, Gamora told where she had last seen Drax. She went into the market place to see if she could find out more from the villagers, while her fellow Guardians picked up and followed Drax's trail. They soon found the location where the warrior previously had left the main road.
The green warrior woman came out of the market building and rejoined them. "Some of the inhabitants saw Drax climb up the hill top and descend to the other side. They say a small craft had landed in the sand, a few hundred metres from the village. They also saw a blue man."
"That's a clue to start with," Rocket concluded. "I've got an idea. If Groot goes around the village and Gam and I go across, we can work faster.
"I am Groot?"
"No, you keep the trackin' viewer."
"What about you, Rock? How can you follow the track without the device?"
"Just watch!" The raccoon bent to the ground to support himself on hands and feet. He walked around sniffing. His nose made a funny, wobbling side-to-side movement. Pretty soon, he had found a scent track and remarked, "Yep, that's Drax's pungent foot smell." He moved along in a fast walking pace.
Gamora knew better by now than to show amazement or ask questions about her unusual crewmates. She just followed the sentient animal through the maze of small passageways between the houses. Groot walked with large steps towards the end of the town and took a turn to the right.
Rocket and Gamora were about to climb the hilltop, when they passed a small white tent house. In front of it, an elderly resident was sitting on a carpet to catch some sunlight. He had a pipe with a long, bent stem between his lips. The man asked her if he could be of any help. Gamora replied, "One of our crew members is missing." She showed a picture, "We try to follow the path he took."
The native said, "I remember the big man passing here before. He went up that hill and then down to the other side. I can show you where."
In the meantime, Rocket had continued walking along the trail. Gamora called to him, "This man can show us where he went. We can take a shortcut."
The busy raccoon stood up. He collected some sticks and rocks to mark the track he found. Then he followed his colleague and the small (well, not as small as Rocket, but smaller than Gamora) indigenous man.
They soon reached the other side of the hill and could see Groot walk from afar. The man pointed to the place where other villagers had seen the craft in the desert. Gamora thanked him for his friendly help. The raccoon and she zigzagged through the maze towards the direction that Drax must have taken.
When they passed the last house and stepped into the sand, they saw Groot approaching from the distance. Rocket shouted, "Do ya have a track already?"
Groot shook his head.
"OK, we have ta pick up the trail again," the raccoon concluded. Gamora continued to the right along the village border, Rocket to the left on all fours to find a scent mark.
"I see footsteps!" Gamora shouted.
The tree and the mammal picked up their pace to meet her.
"I am Groot," the Flora Colossus discovered.
"They match," his friend translated. He took the view screen from Groot. The group followed the footsteps through the desert, heading for the spot where the small spacecraft must have landed. Rocket remarked, "I see two trails. The other person 's probably a normal-sized humanoid. Kree, would be my guess."
Finally the steps ended and they could make out the imprints of a landing gear in the sand. They also found two guns lying close by. Rocket carefully wrapped them up. Then he asked his tree friend, "Can you toss me up? I want to see the landing prints from above."
Groot took Rocket in his large hands, swung his arms and threw the small mammal way up into the air. In flight, the raccoon attained a stable horizontal attitude by rotating his tail. While he rose and fell, he tried to keep the view device as horizontal as possible and focussed it on the landing gear pattern. When he came back to earth, Groot fluently caught him in mid-air and safely put him onto the ground. Rocket hadn't taken his eyes from the screen for even one moment. He blindly trusted his friend to safeguard him.
He studied the footage the view device had produced. Soon, a number of potential crafts appeared on his screen that matched the landing gear marks. "OK, that's all we can do for now, " he concluded, "let's call Peter to pick us up.
Star-Lord landed the ship near their location and the crew went back in. He asked, "What have you got?"
"Two Kree weapons, hopefully with fingerprints. A possible type of the shuttle Drax stepped into. There's a range of cruisers that have small shuttles like that on board."
Peter suggested, "I've already set up a meeting with Rhomann Dey. The Nova Corps wants to share information. He didn't say it in so many words, but they seem to have a few suspect missing person cases themselves."
The Milano left the red desert planet. Peter took the ship in the direction of Xandar while Gamora co-piloted. Rocket was exhausted and took a much earned sleep. The kitchen and the food dispenser were still a mess, but that had to wait.
Author's note: I hope to be back with the next chapter soon, I'm a bit busy still so my publishing pace is not as fast as I wish for.
By the way, I was inspired for Rocket's wobbling nose by a Youtube movie. Google Youtube Buster raccoon and you'll find a delightful little movie about the sweetest racoon you've ever seen. Watch the end of the movie and you'll know what I mean. :)