A/N: For those of you out there who aren't science geeks, let me explain. A tachyon is supposedly a particle that moves backwards in time instead of forwards. This isn't essential to get the story, just one corny joke. Also, I'll admit that I've wanted to play around with the possibility of life on Europa ever since fourth grade, when another kid's school project really prompted me into fantasizing about aliens in our own solar system. Sorry.

Chapter 16:

Four months. They had been on the job for four months.

Mr. Mangetout had been right-- solving the mystery hadn't been a three-hour job. The Orb was clearly in every bit of danger it had been in when Mystery Inc. arrived.

Sure, they had solved a couple of other mysteries. They had terminated a series of prank calls to Europa, a moon of Jupiter which was apparently inhabited. They had busted a couple of losers from near Proxima Centauri who were clearly not authorized to be at the CCC and seemed to be on the run from their own planet's drug police. Once, Velma had even sorted out a horrible mistranslation that almost caused an innocent alien to be sentenced to exile on Charon. But that was the most any of them had done...

The mystery behind the Fizlayen Orb of Power continued to be as perplexing as the day Mystery Inc. arrived. Other than the occasional idle threat letter, nothing more was seen of the Veqs. Even so, every few workdays each member of Mystery Inc. was expected to be stationed guarding the orb, just in case. Usually, the schedule would pair them up with at least one other member, but occasionally they were left to stand guard with a mystery-solver from outside the gang. Today, however, Daphne and Freddie were positioned together, and as almost nobody ever came down to the basement where the Orb was stored, the term "security duty" had almost become code for "day off." They were telling jokes to pass the time, but by noonish they had already run out.

"Okay..." Daphne thought. "Here's one... what do tachyon procrastinators say constantly?"

"I dunno... what?" Fred asked, not altogether sure what a "tachyon" was.

" 'I'll do it yesterday!' " Daphne answered, then apologized. "Sorry... Velma told it to me this morning and I was hoping you would know what it meant..."

"Haven't a clue," Freddie answered simply.

"Drat..." Daphne said flirtingly.

They stood in silence a few minutes. This underground room was about as fun as math class and as adventurous as a Power Ranger movie. As much as they tried to flirt and joke around, the gloom had a way of swallowing any cheer you tried to bring into it.

"I'm hungry," Freddie said after about half an hour.

"What's for lunch?" Daphne asked. It was Freddie's turn to bring the food, after all.

"Italian takeout I picked up on the way over here. It's in that cooler..." Freddie then realized he had left the cooler on the other side of the room. "I'll be right back..."

"Okay, Freddie," Daphne answered, moving just a little closer to the Orb. She knew that "guarding it" just meant standing in the same room, but even so her paranoia made her want to move closer to make up for Fred moving farther away.

She started humming a bit-- it seemed to be an old song from the twenties, although Freddie wasn't quite familiar with the tune. Still, the lively jazz rhythm (as much as anybody can actually hum jazz-- Daphne did a phenomenal job) did help the depressing interior of the room considerably. Fred opened the cooler.

The humming stopped. Fred shrugged it off-- Daphne had probably just forgotten the rest of the tune, or maybe she had only been trying to remove an earworm and it worked. He pulled out a Styrofoam carton.

"Hey Daphne-- do you want Parmeson on your spaghetti?" he asked. No response. "Daphne?" Still nothing. "Daphne?"

He was worried now. He picked up his flashlight and ran over to where Daphne had been standing.

She was gone.

"Freddie!"

Relieved to hear his fiancee's voice, Freddie shone his light up to the rafter from which she was dangling. Her face was pale, her eyes unblinking.

"Freddie... I saw one. It was a... a..."

"A what?" Fred asked, helping her down.

"A Veq."

Freddie only stared at Daphne, speechless.

"Are... are you sure?"

"Yes... pretty sure."

"How? None of us knows what one looks like."

"That's exactly it... the Veqs are the only race we haven't seen, or at least been shown a picture of. There was absolutely nothing familiar about this one..."

"What did it look like?"

"About seven feet tall... wearing a black robe... its face was sort of bluish, with bright yellow eyes... it started moving toward the Orb, Freddie! Then it saw me, and before I could even pull out my taser it picked me up and threw me over the rafters! I was about to shoot it from up here before it got to the Orb... then it heard your voice and realized there must be more than one person down here. It... it disappeared right on the spot!" Daphne was still shaking.

"All right, all right... it's okay," Fred reassured her. "We'll have to report this incident, of course..." Suddenly he stopped and looked at Daphne. Her arm was bleeding. She had a large gash that extended from her elbow halfway down to her wrist.

"You're hurt..." he told her.

"It... it must have been from when he flung me over the rafters... there are some hooks and nails sticking out... I was so scared I didn't even notice."

"Danger-Prone Daphne," Fred told her, smiling. Suddenly, a horrible thought crossed his mind. "Daphne... the baby..."

"I'm pretty sure it's fine, Freddie," she told him. "I wasn't hurt all that badly. He wasn't trying to hurt me, just to get me out of the way. This cut looks like it hurts more than it actually does..." Freddie was relieved to hear that.

"Even so... we should send you to the infirmary..." Fred moved over to the PA system on the wall and pushed the button. "Send backup security to sublevel 28... there has been an injury... Miss Daphne Blake to the infirmary. Thank you." Fred prayed the backup would arrive quickly; it was dangerous to be in this basement alone with this Veq on the prowl, and the sooner Daphne left for the infirmary, the better...

The backup arrived momentarily, along with Mr. Mangetout, asking for an explanation of what happened. As soon as Fred finished delivering it, Mr. Mangetout dismissed him to go.

"You're riled up enough for one afternoon; take the rest of the day off, Mr. Jones. Just because you weren't hurt doesn't mean this isn't stressful for you too..."

"Thank you, Mr. Mangetout."

"All I can do is express my relief that you stopped the Veq from getting the Orb. And at least now we know what they look like, so we can keep an eye on any future appearances."

"Yes sir," Fred told him, leaving the room, for the first time since taking the job, terrified.

Daphne was already standing outside the infirmary by the time Fred got up there. She was wearing a large white bandage around her left arm, but other than that she looked fine. Seeing Fred's worried expression, she calmed him down.

"The baby is okay. They checked me out with this high-tech machine... I'm pretty sure it wasn't built on Earth! And while they were testing the baby's health, they also let me know that it's a girl."

"A girl," Fred repeated.

"At least, they're pretty sure... they admitted it has been wrong before..."

"So watch. If we paint the room pink they'll be wrong; if we go with a standard, boring yellow room they'll be right."

"Basically." Daphne held his hand, already feeling much better than she had right after that little shake-up. They walked out to the parking lot.

"Just don't let me forget to come back later this afternoon to pick up the others," Freddie told Daphne as they climbed into the van.

"The downside of carpooling..." she answered. "Do you think they will tell Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma what happened?"

"I doubt it," Freddie answered. "They probably don't want word of this getting out; it might panic some people." It sure panicked me, he thought.

"Yeah... it was pretty scary..." Daphne said, as though she could read his mind.

Fred put his arm around her, then sighed. "Daphne... is this really a good idea?"

"Is what a good idea?"

"To be working here. I mean while you're pregnant. I didn't really think about it much before today... but next time, if the injury is worse, you might..."

"Lose the baby?" Daphne finished. "Freddie, I know you're concerned, and I appreciate that, but this was a freak accident. A one-time thing. And if this was the worst, and the baby is okay, then I don't think we have anything to worry about."

"I know. It's just..."

"It's just what?"

"It's just that... well... lately I've been getting everything I ever wanted in life. First a diploma, then a job... even though we didn't plan it right away, I did always want kids... and then with us getting married in a couple months everything is perfect. Too perfect. As if everything is going well only to be snatched away just as I'm getting situated. I'm... I'm worried about something happening to the baby, and I'm worried about something happening to you."

Daphne smiled sympathetically. "Freddie... I understand. Sometimes I worry about something happening to you, too. But we've been taking risks for years, and somehow we always survive to risk our necks another day. I think if we all just got ordinary desk jobs with no risk whatsoever we'd die of boredom."

"You think so?"

"I know so." Daphne was sure she had heard that line in a movie somewhere, but she didn't care that it was cliche. "I just hope our daughter doesn't wind up just like us. If she does I am going to be one overprotective mother..."