CHAPTER 98 – THE SEARCH
"Leverage?"
Elizabeth's voice cracked at Jack's announcement that her son was being used as some sort of bargaining chip.
"He's not leverage. He's my baby," she added in her quivering pitiful voice. "My tiny baby boy."
"Buck up," Jack ordered her. He hated being harsh, but he knew that if he coddled her, she might just fall apart. And that wouldn't do them any good.
"Sorry. You're right," Elizabeth agreed.
She hardened her face and looked at Jack with renewed confidence.
"Let's find that bitch and get our son back."
"That's my girl."
"How?" Elizabeth questioned.
She was determined to get her son back in her arms, but her education was more along the lines of diagraming sentences and figuring out simple math word problems. How long does it take two parents to find one stolen baby on a large transporter full of 200 people hurtling through space at more than light speed wasn't something she could answer on her own.
"She doesn't know that we know it's her. That gives us the upper hand for now. Let's try the simplest way first," Jack told her as he pushed the small "o" button on his messenger bracelet, and raised the device to his mouth.
"Crew member Jolene Zyrus –"
"Why'd you stop?" Elizabeth anxiously questioned when Jack had abruptly stopped speaking into the small square on his wrist. "Call her!"
"The intercom's not working. Listen. Do you hear it come out?"
He nodded towards the intercom box mid-way up the wall. "I'm on the security open channel."
He returned his attention to his messenger bracelet and spoke into it again. "Attention. All personnel. Attention. All personnel."
A fretful Elizabeth stared at the intercom box but it remained silent. Not even a crackling bit of noise had been emitted.
"Push your button again. Maybe you're doing it wrong." Elizabeth urged him. She refused to believe that their only way to communicate with the missing Jolene was not working.
"I am not doing it wrong," Jack answered in exasperation. "I know how to use the security's open channel."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm the HEAD OF SECURITY! Of course, I know how to use it!"
He swiftly moved over to the intercom box and pushed his hand on the black button. "Communications Center. This is Officer Thornton. Do you read me?"
The couple impatiently stared at the intercom box but it remained quiet. No one returned their message.
"They have to answer. Someone's always there. It's the rule," Elizabeth announced adamantly as if the required procedures would magically make someone able to respond to their message.
"Something's been tampered with. The cameras and vidoes are down, and now the intercoms aren't transmitting properly."
"Can she do that?"
"She's an electrician with experience on this ship. Remember the recent upgrades before this voyage? She probably had training in everything new, plus enough experience from her past trips."
"But why?"
"So we can't notify the ship's occupants. At least not all at once. Think about it. If the whole ship was looking for her, she'd never get away with anything. She's shut down our ability to do a mass alert."
"ATTENTION. ATTENTION."
"It's working!" Elizabeth screamed excitedly when the intercom seemed to come alive. "What did you do?!"
"Nothing. It just –"
"A MALFUNCTION IN THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS HAS BEEN DETECTED. A MALFUNCTION IN THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS HAS BEEN DETECTED. ELEVATORS, DOORS, AND OTHER SHIP FEATURES MAY NOT FUNCTION PROPERLY. PLEASE REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE WHILE THE SYSTEM IS EVALUATED."
The second that the announcement was over, Jack smacked a hand onto the intercom's black button and hurriedly spoke into the box. "Communications Center. This is Officer Thornton. Do you read me?"
Nothing.
Silence.
"Communications Center. This is Officer Thornton. Do you read me?" he repeated with more urgency.
There was no response.
"It must be that only the computer's automated system can work but nothing else. Damn it!" Jack slammed his hand against the wall.
"What do we do now?"
"We go get our son back." Jack's hard voice was confident and without question.
If Elizabeth wasn't on his side, she almost would have felt sorry for anyone who got in his way. Almost, but not quite.
Jack wedged his fingers in between the door and the jamb and pulled the large solid board to the side.
"Out" he urged Elizabeth.
Once in the corridor, the couple surmised that Jolene would have taken Aaron to the lowest levels, which tended to be less populated. The living quarters on the other floors would be a buzz of activity as night workers awoke, some still in their quarters when the announcement had been made. Day workers would be in the cafeteria, or in their own quarters. A few people would be in the fitness center. Others would be at their duty stations or in their laboratories.
"We'll have to take the stairs," Jack said as he moved past the elevator.
"I think we should split up," Elizabeth told him as she hurried down the steps following on Jack's heels. "You take sublevel B. I'll take C."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. We'll cover more area."
"I know the ship pretty well from my rounds. Maybe we should stick together."
"Between hunting for him when he was flying without gravity, and the times I walked or jogged the corridors with him, I know it pretty darn well myself. I'll be fine," she replied hurriedly. Her voice was full of nervous energy.
Jack paused in front of the door marked Sublevel B. "Be careful."
"I will. You too."
He moved his upper body forward to give her a quick kiss on the cheek.
Without thinking, Elizabeth grasped a hold of him and pulled him into a passionate kiss. She pressed her mouth against his and felt his warmth. She wanted to cling to him. To feel his intensity. To have him take her right there in the stairwell.
"Now?!" a shocked Jack exclaimed as he pulled back from her lips. He gave her a look of disdain. "You kiss me like that at a time like this?!"
"I can't help it!" she wailed. "You're sexy!"
"Concentrate!" he ordered her.
Elizabeth quickly put aside thoughts of her sexy husband and shifted her focus. "I've got the flash-drive, so if you get to her first, stall until I find you. I'll do C level and then come to B. Or take her with you and come to C level."
"And if you get to her first?"
"I'll kick her ass."