Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.
…Before Its Ever Even...
Chapter Fourteen: A Direction At Least
Several disorienting things happened all at once.
Rook was holding the line, the zip-line he'd set his proto-tool as to help the caravan cross to the next asteroid faster. That was what his attention was on. The people crossing.
The Revonnahgander felt more than saw a shadow fall over him, and he looked up just in time to register a mutant To'kustar hand bearing down on him- -before another body collided with his.
Shocked and thrown off balance, Rook dropped his proto-tool, the people still on the line having to clutch madly at the cable to avoid falling into the empty chasm. They were the lucky ones. Rook and the body that collided with him tumbled down. An amalgamation of Orishan, Amperi, Talpaedan, Geochelone Aerio, and Prypiatosian-B. All aliens from the Andromeda galaxy, one of the two galaxies Aggregor was still infamous in. But it wasn't Aggregor that fell on the Revonnahgander and sent them both careening off the edge. It was-
"Shirahk!" Aggregor's voice echoed off the rocks as they fell.
Rook tried to grab the boy, but he had no leverage in the empty air.
In his mutant form, Shirahk could fly and he was about to zoom back up to the asteroid they'd just fallen from and rejoin his family -Warden of the Void falling next to him be damned. But the Way Bad shifted his body and Shirahk collided unexpectedly with its hip. Dazed and disoriented, the Osmosian hung in the air for half a second longer before the Way Bad swatted at him like a fly as it turned away and left the caravan.
For a second time, Shirahk collided with Rook, this time in mid-air. They both went careening off to the side and down. Their free fall didn't stop until they were both swept up in a new gravity stream and collided with a new asteroid. Both beings promptly passed out.
That was several hours ago.
Or, at least, Rook assumed he'd been out for several hours. There was no day or night in the Null Void, no changes in light to measure the passage of time. What did change was the landscape. The asteroids drifting around them did not look familiar, neither did the clusters and formations they were floating in. If the rock they currently sat on had been close to Aggregor's group at one time, it sure as heck wasn't now. Fighting a headache, Rook narrowed his eyes to peer critically at the asteroids closest to them. They all seemed equal parts desolate and empty. No people, or signs of people on them.
They were alone.
Turning away from the voidscape, Rook focused his attention to Shirahk, trying to gauge the state of his companion. The boy had reverted back to his base form and was still unconscious. The Revonnahgander checked his pulse and breathing to make sure it was just the sleep of a normal blackout and not anything worse, anything that might need medical care and technology they did not have access to at this exact moment.
Shirahk opened his eyes just as Rook was feeling around the back of his head and neck, checking for open wounds or bleeding.
"It is alright." The Revonnahgander tried to sooth him, using the low, calming voice they taught at the Academy for speaking to crisis victims. "You are uninjured. But we were hit rather hard. I would recommend against sudden or abrupt movements for the time be-"
Rook was cut off abruptly when the Osmosian shoved him off with a tad more strength than a twelve-year-old child should have, and sat up.
"Where's my family?" He demanded. The last he saw of his father and sisters, they were all fighting a Way Bad while he was forced to dick around and do nothing. "Did everyone get away okay? Where's Father? And Olennor. And Aggrenna. Did they all make it?"
Rook didn't have any answers for him. The last he saw of the group, the mutant To'kustar looked like it had lost interest in them and was turning away. But that didn't mean that that's what happened. The creature was still very much in a position to harm them all. Of course, he also knew better than to tell that to a child who was already distraught after being separated from his family and getting lost with a stranger. Instead, Rook reminded him. "Aggregor is a very formidable opponent. I have read his file. He managed to outwit Ben Tennyson on multiple occasions. Besides, your father is-"
"Old." Shirahk finished for him.
"I beg your pardon?" The Revonnahgander blinked at him. He was going to end with 'besides, your father is Osmosian and Osmosians are hard to kill' which was a truth he'd learned from experiences shared with Kevin. (And horror stories he'd heard of Kevin.) Osmosians rarely went down. If they did, they went down hard, and they went down fighting. But that was Osmosians in their forties, just reaching the end of their prime, but still in their prime. Aggregor had to be in his sixties by now. Well out of his prime. Perhaps his body, or his powers, were in decline. Rook didn't know.
"My father is old." Repeated the boy. He sat in the dirt of the asteroid and looked out over the wide expanse of nothing occasionally interrupted by a vacant asteroid. Then forced himself to stand, brushing dust and rock flakes off his clothes. "If you're trying to reassure me, that means either not everyone made it, or else you don't actually know. Father's right. You are useless to us."
On his feet now, Shirahk swayed a bit. Rook put a supportive hand on his arm to keep the boy from falling. The Osmosian looked at the hand on him, then promptly shrugged the Revonnahgander off. Shirahk thought he was useless, so he wouldn't even accept the simple gesture of support. Either that, or he was going through that phase all young people went through in which they were determined to prove how grown-up they were by acting tough and refusing to accept help. He looked around the asteroid they were on, and noted a distinct lack of any weapons or equipment that could help them. Shirahk lost his spear, and Warden Rook had dropped his proto-tool. All they had on them was the clothes on their backs and whatever might be in their pockets.
Shirahk transformed into his mutant form. Like Devlin had inherited a mutation from Kevin, Shirahk inherited Aggregor's mutation. A combination of five species from the Andromeda galaxy. The legs of an Orishan. Head and hair of an Amperi. Arms of a Talpaedan. The hollow chest of a Geochelone Aerio. There wasn't any Prypiatosian-B traites visible, but Rook knew it was in there. Not just because he'd read the notes on Aggregor in Ben's file, but also because it was a Prypiatosian-B attack that threw the boy off balance and knocked them both off the asteroid in the first place. And, like Devlin could use the powers of all ten aliens that made up his mutation, there was no doubt in the Revonnahgander's mind that Shirahk could use the powers of all five of the aliens that were in him.
Among them, the Amperi ability of flight.
Rook came up beside the Osmosian. In his mutant form, the child was almost as tall as the Revonnahgander. Almost as tall, but already broader.
"Are you able to carry things and fly?" Rook asked. "Would you be able to carry me and fly at the same time."
The Osmosian looked sideways at him through crimson eyes that now glowed. Amperi eyes, but not an Amperi color. "I could carry you." The boy admitted. "But why would I wanna lug around useless weight?"
With that, Shirahk jumped off the edge of the asteroid into the empty air. He hung there for a few moments, trying to decide on a direction. He didn't know how the asteroid they woke up on had drifted. Its course, pattern, or speed. He didn't know what direction to look for his family, how far away they were, or how long the journey might take. Shirahk was truly lost.
He'd never been without his family before. Aggregor almost never let the boy out of his sight. And if his father wasn't around to keep him in line, one of his sisters, Aggrenna or Olennor, were always close by to tell him what to do. Shirahk had no idea what to do. For the first time in his life, there wasn't anyone to take care of him. He always liked to moan and groan how Father smothered him, never let him accompany his sisters hunting, or defend the rest of the caravan. Shirahk liked to remind them all that -unlike Aggrenna and Olennor- he had powers. He could take care of himself. He was independent. They needed to start treating him like a man and not a little boy!
But the fact of the matter was, Shirahk didn't know the first thing about taking care of himself. He was not independent. While he did have powers, he was still young and inexperienced, prone to mistakes and miscalculations. Shirahk was not a man, he was still very much a little boy.
"Father!" He called to the Void. It echoed in the empty spaced between asteroids, but there was no answering call. The Void did not call back. Aggregor did not call back. "Aggrenna! Olennor!"
Rook watched the Osmosian fly from empty asteroid to empty asteroid, calling for his family. Voice getting higher and higher as he became more and more frantic. A franticness that was quickly approaching the border to hysterical. For all his talk about Rook being useless weight, Shirahk wasn't much better. He was just a scared little child with no idea what to do.
"I have a map." The Revonnahgander called to him, hoping this information might calm the super-powered child a little. The map wouldn't show then to Shirahk's family, but it would at least let them see where they were.
The boy did pause in his frantic flitting from asteroid, to asteroid. Hovering in the air, glowing rudy eyes glared down at the Plumber. "How will that help!?"
"We will not have to wander aimlessly." Rook shouted up at him. "Is there a place your family makes camp often? Or any villages or settlements they do regular trade with? We can head to one of them and wait for your father and sisters there."
It seemed like a perfectly rational solution to the boy's problem. Aggregor's group was a nomadic band. They traveled the Void, never staying in the same place for very long. But the Null Void was not infinite like real space. It was finite. A pocket dimension. Emphasis on the 'pocket'. So, it stood to reason there were would be settlements they'd return to regularly. Holdfasts to board for rest. Farms or towns to resupply. Fortresses or similar settlements for trade. Even wanderers had to take breaks from wandering every now and again.
Shirahk floated back from to stand in front of Rook. He reverted back to his base form. Black hair and red eyes like Aggregor's, blue skin and lithe limbs from the Null Void settler Rook assumed was the boy's mother. He was significantly shorter in his base form than in his mutant one. Only a couple centimeters taller than Kenny Tennyson was the last time Rook saw him. The Revonnahgander pushed that comparison out of his mind. Thoughts of Kenny inevitably brought on thoughts of the boy's father, and Rook couldn't afford the distraction when there was a lost and scared child depending on him. Rook had to be the capable and responsible adult he was expected to be.
"Let me see it." The boy demanded.
Pulling out his Plumbers badge, Rook flicked open the app that would project his holographic map of the Null Void. Still just as incomplete as it was when Rook and Arys were originally attacked by a Way Bad, their vehicle destroyed, and were stranded in the wild Void.
Crimson eyes narrowed at the projection as Shirahk studied the map. "Its kinda a shitty map."
"It is better than not having any map at all." The Revonnahgander informed him.
The boy shifted his glare from the map to the one holding it. His frown was skeptical. "Aren't these things also communicators? Can't you call the rest of your Plumbs on this thing and just have someone come pick you up?"
"That was the first thing both Magister Arys and I tried." Rook informed him very patiently. "Our badges must have been damaged when our THV was attacked."
That skeptical frown shifted to cautious suspicion. "Then how do you know your precious map wasn't also damaged?" He asked. "Its not even all here! You've got huge pieces missing! You don't even have Daq's holdfast, or the Rooters base marked on here. How can you have the Free Fortress marked on here, but not Daq's? Its the single most consistent landmark that passes the Free Fortress. And the Rooters! Aren't they your biggest adversary here? Shouldn't know know where they are? Why aren't they marked on your map? Why do you suck so much?"
The Revonnahgander gaped at the boy. He didn't know who this 'Daq' was, he mentioned, but that wasn't the part he was focusing on. Rook ignored the fact that the boy basically just said he was terrible at his job and instead singled out the one important piece of information. "Shirahk, do you know where the Rooters base is?"
"Of course I do!" The boy snapped, as if this should have been obvious and the Warden was dumb for even having to ask. As if everyone knew where the Rooters base was. As if it was common knowledge and Rook and his Plumbers were just dumb for not knowing it. "All Osmosians know where Servantis' lair is. He is kinda obsessed with us. My father wanted to make sure I knew where it was so I know where to stay away from."
Rook was speechless for a moment.
It was true, neither he nor any other member of his team knew where Servantis' current base of operations was. After obtaining his position as Warden of the Void, one of the first things the Revonnahgander did was take a full strike team to the last place he knew the Rooters had been. When Gwendolyn was still pregnant and Kevin still a member of Ben's Team, the two of them had gone into the Void together with the specific intension of finding Servantis and bringing him back to help with Gwendolyn's problematic pregnancy.
Rook and Kevin found Servantis and the rest of his Rooters -at the time that was just his original team, Swift, Leander, and Phil- had hollowed out almost half an asteroid and were hiding in a base underground. The marker for the base, being a unique rock formation with a bit of a overhang and a narrow gap concealing the entrance. Rook lead a team to that very spot after he took the Void deployment. They found the rock formation and the concealed entrance that lead into the dug out cave systems. But the Rooters had gone. Servantis managed to elude them.
And had been eluding them ever since.
Kneeling down to be closer to the boy's level, Rook held the badge out to him. "Can you show me on this map where the Rooters base is?"
Shirahk took the badge, studying the projection and the shifting asteroids. "Here's the Free Fortress." He said, pointing to Incarcecon. He continued to peer at it. "There should be an asteroid rotating on a consistent ellipsis here." He moved his finger through the map in an ovoid motion. The image glitched and flickered as his hand passed through it, but returned to normal after he was done. "Daq's holdfast is on that asteroid, it passes both the Free Fortress and the Rooters base, but on opposite ends of its rotation. So, if the Free Fortress is here, then the Rooter have to be here."
He poked a blank space on the map.
They didn't have any mapping nodes in that area. Rook had no idea what was out there. It made sense that Servantis would establish his new base in a part of the Void that was still unexplored. Or, at least, unexplored by the Plumbers. Shirahk, or more accurately, Aggregor seemed to know it at least well enough to teach his son to stay away.
"Alright." Rook nodded. "We won't go there."
But when he got back to his own base, the Revonnahgander was going to organize the biggest ranging party he could with all the available man-power and equipment he had on hand. They would flush out the Rooters and finally put a stop to Servantis once and for all. All assuming Rook ever got back to Plumbers Headquarters, of course. At the moment, the Revonnahgander wasn't too optimistic about that. Not only had he lost his vehicle and damaged the communication feature on his badge, but now he'd lost the other Magister with him and been separated from the natives that were helping him. He was lost and in the company of a child that needed to be taken care of more than he would be of any help.
Shirahk was studying the map again. "This blinking dot, that's us?"
"Yes." Rook confirmed.
"Then we should go this direction." The Osmosian traced his finger through the hologram again, messing with the projection. "By the time we get about here, this asteroid will have drifted down. That's where we'll rest, and the asteroid will carry us to Daq's, which will carry us to the Free Fortress."
Rook cringed visibly. Heading to Incarcecon would take him even farther out of the way of his own base. But, he reminded himself, as Warden of the Void, he had a responsibility to the natives of the Void. If Incarcecon was where Shirahk wanted to wait for his family to find him, that was where the Revonnahgander would take him. Maybe Quince would be feeling generous and allow him to borrow a vehicle to return to his own base with. Or if not a vehicle, then a Null Guardian they had domesticated and trained to be ridden. Rook knew how to ride a Null Guardian -in theory.
"Then we will go to Incarcecon." Rook stood.
Shirahk gave him his badge back. "I guess you want me to carry you so we can fly."
"I would appreciate it." Admitted the Revonnahgander. "We would travel faster that way."
With a nod, the Osmosian transformed back into his mutant form, picked Rook up, and jumped off the asteroid they were on. They took off flying in the direction that would -eventually, in a round about way- take them to the Free and Independent Fortress of Incarcecon.
…
Both Aggrenna and Olennor had to grab their father and dig their feet in to keep Aggregor from jumping off the asteroid after Shirahk.
"He'll be fine." Said one.
"He can fly." The other reminded him.
But Aggregor wasn't listening to them. As Olennor said earlier, he was impossible to deal with if the boy was in danger. They say parents shouldn't play favorites with their children, and for many years Aggregor held with that. He loved both his daughters equally. But then Shirahk came along. The youngest of all his children. The only son. The only one to inherit his Osmosian mutation. The only one to be like him. Shirahk was special. One of a kind. ...And the last one his lover gave him before her death. For that reason, and that reason especially, Aggregor favored him. While Kevin blamed his son for nearly killing his wife, Aggregor was different, Aggregor blamed himself and his own Osmosian mutation for his lover's death. Shirahk was blameless, and maybe even blessed because she chose his life over her own.
Shirahk was the favorite, and when the favorite was threatened, Aggregor was impossible to reason with.
"Shirahk!" The Osmosian continued to call into the Void. When there was still no responding call, Aggregor struggled even harder. "Let me go! I have to save your brother!"
"How!?" Demanded Olennor. "You can't fly. Kevin stripped you of that ability during your defeat at the Forge of Creation."
"All you'll succeed in doing is getting yourself lost." Aggrenna informed him. "Or worse, killed! Contrary to what you might believe, Olennor and I still need you."
"Eh, I could take him or leave him." Snarked the younger woman, although she did not loosen her hold on him, nor lessen the strength with which she was helping to restrain him.
On the other asteroid, the rest of the caravan tugged on the cord of Warden Rook's dangling proto-tool, trying to pull up those of their group that had fallen when the Revonnahgander had fallen. The other Plumber, the Lewodan Magister Arys, flew down to grab whomever he could and bring them back up, or help those that lacked the arm strength to pull themselves up the proto-tool line. But he couldn't save everyone. Rook and Shirahk weren't the only members of their band lost to the Void in this attack.
"Shirahk!" Aggregor continued to shout at the empty and non-responsive air as his daughters continued to struggled to keep him away from the edge.
"This is getting ridiculous!" Olennor growled. She let go of her father just enough to shift her position and slam a single, devastating, punch to his mid-section. When the Osmosian doubled over from the blow, she delivered a hard chop to the back of his neck, rendering the old man almost instantly unconscious.
Aggregor collapsed to the ground at their feet.
Aggrenna glared at her little sister. "Why do you do these thing?"
The younger woman only shrugged, unconcerned. "What? At least now he's not trying to throw himself off a cliff."
"Granted." The older woman had to admit. She stamped her foot in the dust in frustration. "But now how are we gonna get him across? Can you make that jump while carrying him? Because I sure as hell can't!"
"Relax." Olennor waved off her concerns. "We'll just wait for Shirahk to fly back up and then we'll make him carry father."
Both women looked down in the direction their brother had fallen, expecting to see his mismatched form floating up to them, indignations ready and waiting on his lips. Any second now... After a few moments past and nobody flew back up, the sisters exchanged a look.
"Warden Rook fell with him." Olennor said. "Do you think the Plumb is weighing him down?"
"A Revonnahgander is not heavy enough to slow him down?" Aggrenna bit the nail of her thumb with concern. She looked down at their unconscious father. He would not be happy when he woke up and learned that his baby-son, his favorite, was lost in the Void. Peering over the edge, she saw no sign of her brother or the Plumber that fell with him. Shifting her attention back up, Aggrenna noted that the rest of the group, already on the other side, was watching her and her sister expectantly. Looking to them for leadership while Aggregor was out of commission. Everyone, including the other Plumber that had been traveling with them. She jabbed a finger at Magister Arys. "You, Lewodan, fly down there and look for my brother and your boss."
Arys was just placing the last of those who'd fallen back on their feet when Aggrenna barked her order at him. He didn't much like taking orders from her or her immediate family, especially not after spending the better part of the last seventy-two hours being poked and prodded by their spears. But flying down to look for Warden Rook was the very next thing he intended to do anyway. So, more for himself than for her, the Lewodan gave a nod and darted back down between the two asteroids to search for their fallen companions.
Lower down, the gap between the two asteroids widened, each floating rock tapering off to semi-identical points angling away from the fissure. Not something easily grabbed onto in a free fall. Arys dove lower, keeping his eyes sharp, scanning the open air for any sign of beings tumbling through it.
About three meters below the asteroids the gravity suddenly shifted. The pull of forces dragging Arys off to one side, veering away from the asteroids at a surprising speed. The Lewodan had to do some creative flying with his natural levitation ability to get out of the pull and keep himself from being swept away with the current. A gravitational 'under-toe' of sorts. Is Rook and the boy were caught in that when they fell, they would have been swept away in moments and carried who knows how far by now.
Gritting his teeth and not looking forward to having to tell Shirahk's sisters that he was most likely lost to the Void, Arys flew back up to rejoin the group.
The sisters were still standing over their unconscious father when he returned, the rest of the caravan on the other side watching them nervously. Aggrenna's eyes narrowed when she noted that he did not return with her little brother in toe. (He didn't return with his boss either, but Aggrenna didn't give a flying fuck about him.)
"Where's Shirahk?" She demanded the moment the Lewodan hovered over to them.
"I don't know." Admitted the Plumber. "There's a strong gravity flow under us. I think they got caught in it and pulled away."
"Father will be impossible to wrangle once he wakes up." Now it was Olennor's turn to bite her nails in concern, looking down at the old Osmosian. "Also, I'm worried about Shirahk."
Aggrenna shot her sister a look, then glanced down at Aggregor. He would be pissed at them, and hysterical with worry when he woke up. They would need something -anything- to tell him to keep him calm. Or at least reassure him that there was a way to find Shirahk. She focused her attention back on Arys. "Which direction was the gravity flow heading?"
The Lewodan paused for a moment, thinking. Aligning the voidscape below them to the one they were currently standing on in his mind's eye. Finally, he pointed. "That way. Pretty fast too. They must be several kilometers away from us already."
She followed his extended hand with her eye. Studying the asteroids, their drift patterns, the general flow of the area, and tried to gauge where they were in relation to everything else in the Void. To navigate the same way Aggregor navigated the Null Void and lead their caravan. While he was out of commission, it fell to her to take care of everyone.
Just like it fell to her to take care of Olennor and Shirahk after their mother died. Father was a distraught wreck and not in a mind to take care of himself, never mind three children. Mother was gone, Olennor was still just a bit too young to understand what had actually happened -the permanence of it-, and Shirahk was brand new and needed to be fed, cleaned, held, and generally cared for. Aggrenna was the oldest, so the responsibility fell on her shoulders.
Not that she was resentful or anything -even if no one ever did acknowledge her efforts.
"Okay." She finally said. "Okay. I think I know where Shirahk will go. We'll head to Daq's holdfast, and if Shirahk isn't there, we'll move on to the Free Fortress."
"Ugh. I hate stopping at Daq's." Olennor groaned. "The way he always harps on about Kevin is creepy."
"We won't stay long." Aggrenna promised.
Arys looked between the two sisters. "So... I guess taking me back to my base just isn't happening anymore?"
The two women looked at him, almost as if they'd forgotten he was even there.
"Warden Rook fell with him. If he's alive, they'll probably travel together. You can collect your boss at the Free Fortress, and then head back to your base together." Aggrenna informed him in a tone that implied it was not up for debate. They and the rest of their caravan were going to head to a landmark they knew well and reunite with their fallen brother. Arys could do whatever the fuck he wanted, but if the Lewodan was smart, he'd stick with the safety that being in a group provided him. "Now, if you want to make yourself useful, you can carry our father over there for us."
She pointed to where the rest of the group still waited on the other side of the chasm.
Arys followed her finger. Looked back out in the direction he was pretty sure Rook had drifted. Studied the sisters. Glanced at Aggregor laying unconscious on the ground between them. The Lewodan didn't actually have many options, and the Null Void would not be kind to a single Plumber traveling alone. Sticking with their band and delaying his return to Headquarters until they found their brother really was the best option he could hope for this far out.
Arys didn't answer Aggrenna, not really. He just scooped Aggregor up off the ground and hefted the old Osmosian over his shoulders. He hoped the women weren't gonna ask him to carry them over next. After everything that had already happened, he was pretty tired.
He needn't have worried. Aggrenna picked up the only spear that hadn't been completely lost during the fight with the Way Bad from where it had dropped. It was slick with mutant To'kustar blood, and she spun it several times to dry it off enough to be piractical. Then she got a running start, stuck the spear in the ground near the edge and vaulted over the chasm. Landing with the grace of someone who pole vaulted between asteroids often. Feet firmly on the other side now, she turned around and threw the spear back over the divide for her sister to do the same.
Within a few moments the whole group was complete again, minus only one adolescent Osmosian boy.
A few members of the caravan helped Arys lay the unconscious Aggregor over the back of one of the Null Guardians with the rest of the group's baggage. They strapped his prone figure between two rolled up tents.
"Hopefully Shirahk will be back with us by the time he wakes up." Aggrenna growled, more to herself than anyone else.
"I'd actually be a little worried if that was the case." Confessed Olennor. "I didn't hit him that hard, but he's not exactly a young guy, ya know."
Arys flicked an assessing glance back at the Osmosian. From what he knew of the Warlord of the Andromeda galaxy, it would be in everyone's best interest if he stayed unconscious until his lost son was with them again. Otherwise, he really would not be happy about being knocked out in addition to having lost his youngest child.
…
"Frey, please tell me you have an update!" Magister Chaz's voice crackled over the THV's com system.
He sounded tense and ever-so-slightly desperate. What? Was Plumbers Command already breathing down his neck or something? Did he miss a deadline for sending a regular report? Wasn't he supposed to be the paperwork guy? The one who was all into bureaucracy and the minutia of big organization micro-managing smaller groups. Deccar Chaz was supposed ot be good at that stuff. It was the main reason why Rook made Chaz his second-in-command should anything happen to him. To maintain a level of organization and control. Was Chaz already bombing that hard at his fucking job?
Magister Roose reached for the com before Frey could. "We questioned some locals and came up with nothing. We have nothing." He informed his colleague tersely. "What about on your end? Any luck finding the trackers on their badges or raising them on the coms?"
"None." Chaz admitted, sounding worried. "And I just got a call from Ben 10,000 asking about Warden Rook."
There was a collective gasp from everyone in the THV cabin. The Ben 10,000? Like, everyone knew that their commander used to be partners with the legendary wielder of the Omnitrix and Hero of the Universe. There were even a couple of footnotes about Rook in the second part of the chapter and a half about Ben 10,000 that was taught at Plumbers Academy. But they didn't know that Warden Rook and Ben 10,000 were still friends and still kept in contact with each other. Had Ben 10,000 already felt his former partner's absence? Did he, like, miss and scheduled Skype chat or something? Was he suspicious? Was he also looking for the Revonnahgander?
"I think its time I submitted an official report informing the Magestrata that Rook is missing in action." Chaz admitted over the com channel.
"If you do that, they'll parachute in come new guy to take over, and we'll lose control of the Void." Roose informed him.
As if the Plumbers even had control of the Void to begin with. Ha! Nothing controlled the Null Void.
"And if they find out we knowingly and willfully withheld the information or submitted false reports, we'll all be striped of rank, dishonorably discharged, and lose our pensions." Chaz reminded him. "Remember, shit like that was what the Rooters were doing."
"Okay, don't compare us to Rooters!" Frey snapped at the com. "They were also kidnapping children and doing inhumane experiments. Omitting the fact that we've lost our leader from one or two reports is not the same thing. Don't compare the two."
"Give us another twenty-four hours." Roose demanded. "If we haven't found him by then, go ahead and submit an official report."
He turned off the com without waiting for Chaz's response.
Leaning back in his seat, Roose crossed his arms over his chest in thought. Tapping the fingers of a paw on one arm he thought out loud. "Normal grid searches are pointless here because everything is shifting, the grid changes and you end up searching the same damn asteroid three or four times while others go completely untouched."
"What do you suggest?" Frey asked from the pilot's seat. She wasn't just asking Magister Roose, she was also asking the other three members of their five man team. Traditional search and rescue tactics didn't translate well in the Null Void.
"How do the locals navigate?" One of them asked. The Null Void wasn't just populated by farms, fortresses, and holdfasts. There were nomadic groups and trader caravans that made regular circuits of the Void every rear. They must have a way to navigate the ever shifting pathways of asteroids in the Void. Otherwise, how did they ever manage to get to the same places around the same times every year?
"Should we go back to that holdfast and ask?" Suggested a second.
"I doubt anyone there would help us." Admitted the third. "They'd probably just treat us to more creepy talk about Magister Levin."
"Did anyone think to drop a mapping node there?" Frey asked. True, the holdfast hadn't exactly been friendly and welcoming to them, but they weren't openly hostile and asteroids that held settlements or settlers should be noted in their files.
Everyone shook their head in a negative.
"We really are shit at this job."
…