Chapter 73-SEARCHING FOR

"Where is he?!" an astounded Elizabeth asked. She looked around the room in bewilderment. She had expected to see her son the moment the door had finally opened and revealed her cabin. She had never imagined that he would have simply disappeared.

"Under the covers, that's it!" Jack announced as he propelled himself to the nearest bunk. "Of course," he said in relief. "He's got to be under the covers."

"Yes!" Elizabeth replied. She heart stopped beating erratically now that she knew that her son was just a few feet away and merely hidden from her view.

She and Jack had initially assumed that the covers, which were lifted inches off the berths and held down only at the edges – like a small tent- were straining against the lack of gravity, but now it made much more sense that their small boy was playing under one of them.

Jack let out a sigh of frustration when the upper berth on the right side of the cabin didn't have his son hidden under the covers. He quickly moved to the left side berth while Elizabeth scrambled to look under the covers of the lower berths.

"He's not here," she said unbelievably as she examined the one berth and then the other.

The berths which Jack checked were also empty.

The couple stared at each other. Both thinking the same thing. What the hell?!

Grabbing hold of the nearest locker, Jack yanked open the door, and looked inside. "He's got to be somewhere!" he said anxiously before moving on to the other three personal storage units.

Each was empty.

Elizabeth used her arms and the metal rungs of the berths to maneuver herself along the room. Determinedly checking each set of bedding again and gently smooshing the pillows.

"Where is he?!" she cried out but Jack was already moving through the shower door, which slid open perfectly for him now that the mechanism had been overridden.

"We've been here the whole time," Susie had announced when Jack explained that they were looking for Aaron. "He didn't come in here."

Jack and Elizabeth had nevertheless searched their suite-mates' room as well as the bathroom and the shower enclosure. Elizabeth had even looked in the toilet.

"Are you sure you're not playing a trick on us?" she had sternly asked the two girls. "Because it is not funny. Not at all. I am very worried about Aaron. If they turn gravity back on and he's floating, he'll fall and hurt himself. And he shouldn't be without me or Officer Thornton. Tell me the truth. Do you know where he is?"

"No, Mrs. Thornton. Honest," the girls had professed in unison.

Jack was now arguing with the transporter's control center and First Officer.

"Officer Thornton, we need to re-initiate gravity. We have an entire ship full of people who are tired of floating around. Not to mention the experiments and objects that weren't secured when we lost gravity. I'm sorry, but I can't keep everyone off their feet much longer just because you lost your son."

"You will keep gravity off until I find him," Jack ordered firmly.

"I'm in charge of this ship, not you. Please remember that," the first officer's stern voice came over Jack's messenger bracelet.

"And I'm in charge of all law enforcement, the security of this ship, and all investigative matters. I have the authority to over-ride all ship actions, including yours and the Captains, if I see the need. You need to remember that," Jack said harshly. Although he generally didn't like to flout his powers, he wasn't too modest to use his position if he needed to.

Elizabeth frantically wrung her hands while Jack continued speaking to the control center and ordering someone to check the security cameras in his office. From what they had guessed so far, Aaron must have opened the door to the main corridor by either getting in front of the lights or by the voice-activation system, left the room, and then locked the doors behind him.

Jack was trying to remain calm but he had to admit he was a bit frazzled that his son was lost. Or possibly kidnapped, although that seemed highly unlikely given that everyone on-board had thoroughly passed a security clearance and they were all stuck together on a transporter for the next four months.

"You stay here, Elizabeth. I'm going to my office to look at the cameras myself."

"Why should I stay here?" Elizabeth questioned Jack. When she moved to look at him, a large swath of hair billowed in front of her. She absent-mindedly pulled a rubber band off her wrist and secured it around her disheveled hair.

"He can't have gone far. He's still new at crawling," Jack reminded her.

"Of course, he CAN have gone far!" she hysterically argued. "He's not crawling! He's flying. He can go wherever he wants! He can go anywhere just by moving his limbs! He doesn't even have to be coordinated!"

Jack struggled to come up with a logical response to the idea that his six-month old son was flying through a transporter as it hurtled through space. "Then stay here in case he comes back."

"He won't come back!" Elizabeth gave naive Jack a bewildered look. "He's six months old! He's not a homing pigeon! How is a six-month-old supposed to find his way back to his quarters even if everything on the ship didn't look the same?!"

"It's okay, Elizabeth. Just stay calm."

"Calm. Right, stay calm," she ordered herself, but a tear tumbled out of one of her eyes and trailed down a cheek.

"Fine. Then come with me," Jack replied as he took hold of her hand and used his other to push off from a wall.

An announcement had been made over the intercom asking all passengers to be on the look-out for the missing child, and Jack felt confident that Aaron would be found soon.

"Did you tell them that he weighs fifteen pounds and has brown hair?" Elizabeth anxiously asked Jack when the first announcement was made. "Because they didn't mention that."

"It's fine. People don't need to know his weight and hair color."

"They should announce that he's wearing a onesie without the feet parts. It's white with little bright orange giraffes on it. And he's not wearing socks."

An incredulous Jack looked at her and shook his head. "We don't need to tell anyone what he's wearing."

"It might be helpful," she protested.

"How will it be helpful?!" Jacks eyes drew together and he continued to look at her in disbelief. "Do you think that if people don't know about the giraffes no one is going to notify us when they see a baby float by?!"

"They may not think he's lost!"

"He's an infant floating alone through the transporter. I think they can figure out that he's our lost son."

"Maybe not!"

"He's the only baby on board!"

The surveillance cameras on the transporter were not as helpful as the couple had hoped. Unfortunately, the cameras, which were affixed to the ceilings, had their lenses aimed downwards. While that was normally the position which allowed movements to be captured on a digital recording, it was meant to record people walking on the floor, not floating near the ceiling.

The couple had seen Aaron happily float out of the cabin but then lost sight of him as his body moved above the camera's focus. They now knew that he hadn't been kidnapped, but that didn't make them feel entirely comfortable with the situation.

"Come on, we'll start patrolling the corridors."

The couple had barely left the security room when the first report of a sighting was made. A man's sleepy voice crackled over the intercom. "Umm. This is lieutenant Tuskina. There's a baby that just floated into my quarters, but he floated back out before I could confront him. Weird. Was I dreaming?"

Jack and Elizabeth were going as fast as they could by pushing off of walls, stair railings, and doorways as they made their way through the ship. It was difficult maneuvering because the limited gravity meant that there wasn't much friction to stop them when they propelled themselves in one direction. The result was that they didn't stop moving until they banged into a wall or door, and then pushed themselves in another direction.

Elizabeth had a feeling she'd be covered in bruises by tomorrow. The couple was hurriedly changing directions almost constantly as new reported sightings were announced.

"I saw a baby cross the other end of the hallway on Level 3A. He was chewing on a shoe."

"I'm missing a shoe," a female's voice came over the intercom.

"Some kid wearing a giraffe onesie just floated by me in front of the fitness center. I had my hands full or I would have reached out an grabbed him."

"Did someone say a kid and a giraffe just floated by? Why is there a giraffe on-board?!"

"I want to see a giraffe."

The messages which were from the sleepy night crew were obvious because the men and women, woken up by repeated announcements, and finding themselves hovering off their mattresses, sounded the most confused.

"My door opened and I heard what sounded like a kid babbling before the door closed again. But I'm not sure. Our lights were off. I'm in E308 Level 2B. Is something going on that I should know about? I think it was that nut-allergy kid. Walnut or Pecan or Acorn or something."

"Something just drooled on my face while I was sleeping!"

It seemed that as soon as Jack and Elizabeth headed in one direction, Aaron was spotted in another area.

"Where is he?" Jack asked to couple in the Quartermaster's office. He swiveled his head around and started for the long shelving.

"He's not here. The door opened and he came in but then he left again."

"What didn't you get him?!" Elizabeth demanded.

"He startled us. It happened really quickly," the male crew-member answered defensively. He looked a bit disheveled but Elizabeth reasoned that was due to the lack of gravity.

"How hard could it be?! You just had to reach out and grab him!"

"We were busy," the female crew member whose messy pigtails were floating to the sides said evasively. "We messaged you," she added as if that made up for the fact that she hadn't secured the small boy and held him until his parents arrived.

"How busy could you be?!"

"Hey, don't yell at me," the woman retorted as she took offense at Elizabeth's outburst. "I'm not the one who lost my kid."

"Why you –"

"Stop, Elizabeth," Jack said before Elizabeth could continue her verbal attack. "Just let it be. Let's move on."

"And you two, I suggest you stop making out with each other while on duty," he said as the took hold of Elizabeth's hand and guided her towards the door. "Tuck your uniform shirt in," he ordered the female crew member on his way out of the room.

"You should report them," Elizabeth said with a huff before the door had barely closed behind them and they were back in the hallway.

"For what? Making out?"

"Dereliction of duties," she responded hotly.

"We lost our kid. I think we've already taken the cake on dereliction of duties."

Up next: Chapter 74

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