Jamie gaped at the empty space in front of him.
"Wasn't he jist in front of us?"
"He … was …" Zoe replied slowly as her brain tried to compute what had just happened.
"Weeell, where could he have gone, then?" Jamie began frantically looking around. "Doctor!" he called, cupping his hands around his mouth.
Zoe sighed. "Jamie, we're not going to find him."
"Well, of course we're nae if we jis' stand here! If we hadnae been arguing, mebbe we would've seen where he'd gone. Come on, help me look." He started off when she grabbed his arm, effectively stopping him.
"It doesn't matter. He was right in front of us. We would have heard him if he'd walked away. And he wouldn't have had time to hide anywhere without us seeing." She gazed at the desolation around them. "Look around; there's nothing here to hide behind anyway. He's actually disappeared."
"Weel, then, where is he, canny lass?"
"I don't know!"
There was a long stretch of silence as she struggled to theorize what happened to their dear friend. Finally she and Jamie stared at each other in futility.
"Mebbe he's made for that wee village or whatever it is he saw," the Highlander offered.
Zoe shook her head. "We would have seen him. It was quite a distance away; he wouldn't have got that far in such a short time."
"Well, what're we gonna do?!" he practically demanded. "We cannae —" The Highlander stopped and winced as the wind suddenly picked up. Far from being a cool, refreshing breeze, it was sickeningly warm.
It also picked up some of the red dirt and sand, sending it flying into his eyes. "Agh!" he cried, frantically wiping his eyes with his shirtsleeve and then doing his best to shield them with his arm raised, wrist against his forehead.
Zoe quickly took off her little jacket, placing it over her head as a makeshift umbrella.
"We can't stay out here —we need to find shelter!" she shouted over the noise of the whipping winds.
"How are we gonna find any shelter? There's naethin' aroond here!"
"Well we've got to find something!"
Zoe desperately tried to recall which direction she had seen that cluster of buildings the Doctor had spotted. Could it have been … there? She pointed in a vaguely northwest direction.
Or maybe it was there? She heaved a sigh of frustration. No, despite how uniform their surroundings appeared, it couldn't have been in that direction. Perhaps it was—
"Come on!" Jamie suddenly gripped her hand and pulled her along with him as he took off running.
Zoe didn't object as the winds picked up even further and she struggled to keep her jacket above her head with one hand. In such conditions she couldn't see where they were going, but it no longer mattered —she trusted Jamie enough to lead them to safety.
Slowing a bit, she lowered her head slightly, dropping her gaze to the material beneath their feet as she began toeing at it with her shoe. "If we found some soil with a high clay content, we could use it to construct a makeshift barrier to shield us from the wind and sand—"
"Or we could jist make fer those yon houses!" Jamie interrupted, gesturing vaguely with his left hand before he hurried them along.
Looking back up, Zoe risked a glance in the direction he was pointing. About thirty yards away she was just able to spot a cluster of white buildings. Could they have been the same ones the Doctor had spotted? They appeared farther away than this. At least she thought they had …
"Almost there, come on," Jamie urged her softly as he led her toward the nearest, octagonal-shaped building.
Hopefully there was someone inside who could help them figure out what happened to the Doctor. At the moment, she would just be glad to get out of this sandstorm.
"Here goes nothin'," Jamie blurted as he pulled open the door, ushering Zoe inside before following and shutting it behind them.
Zoe heaved a sigh in relief, thankful to finally be indoors away from the coarse sand whipping around them. She immediately noticed how much more comfortable the air was and surmised there was some indoor ambient cooling system. Upon first glance, they appeared to be in a large, main room of some sort of outpost building —maybe an office, judging by the rows of tables and what appeared to be work stations.
She was suddenly aware of a group of seven men and four women of different ages standing before them. They were all outfitted in white jumpsuits with gray piping along the seams. Their uniforms seemed vaguely familiar to those of some of the personnel she knew back on the Wheel.
The strangers stared at them, bewildered. Finally, one of the men spoke. "Are you the ones we've been expecting?"
Jamie and Zoe exchanged glances. "Aye!" Jamie blurted out. His reply was met with a sea of perplexed expressions. "Er, um —yes. We are," he clarified with a nod.
Each of them turned to one another, briefly murmuring before looking back at him and Zoe. They all looked pleased. In fact, maybe a bit too pleased. Both Zoe and Jamie shifted uncomfortably.
A tall, middle-aged woman with dark, shoulder length hair stepped forward. "Welcome," she greeted with a smile. "I'm Maura Lincroft. It is an honor to have you both here."
She offered her hand to Zoe, who gazed curiously at her as she shook it. "Oh?"
"Of course!" Maura replied, reaching out to shake Jamie's hand next. "To have the renowned husband and wife team who have made their research in this field their life's work?"
Jamie gaped at them in shock, turning to Zoe who wore a similar expression. Maura then nodded at him. "Especially you, Doctor Galliwup."
The Highlander blinked.
Doctor Gally-who?
"That paper on new methods of drilling horizontal wells and extracting core samples of rock material. So very insightful! In fact, we've adopted them as our own methods." She and several others smiled proudly at him. "How could we not be honored to be working with such scholars?"
Shocked beyond belief, Jamie swallowed hard and then nearly choked, setting off a round of violent coughing. Zoe quickly drew closer to him, firmly slapping him on the back several times.
"Is he alright?" a younger man asked.
Jamie finally straightened up, giving a brief nod of thanks to Zoe. "Oh, aye, 'm alright. I jis' … My throat's so verra parched. I ciud use some water."
Zoe nodded. "Yes, after that sand storm we were in …"
"Oh, yes, of course." Maura headed over to a small section of the room that resembled a break area. Grabbing a large, translucent pitcher, she poured two glasses of water and then returned, handing them to Jamie and Zoe. Accepting his, Jamie began to drink, giving her a quick nod of thanks.
Zoe watched him a moment and then took a sip of hers. The water was refreshingly cold, and … delicious.
The taller woman smiled. "We have our own natural purification system. The hundreds of feet of closely packed sand, gravel and coarser material any surface water travels through does a wonderful job of removing impurities from it before it reaches the aquifer."
Zoe nodded, impressed.
"As we were saying, how could we turn down the opportunity to have you work with us and observe us putting your proposed methods into action?"
"Oh, aye. How ciud ye?" Jamie remarked with a nod, puffing his chest out a bit.
Maura's smile faded as she gazed thoughtfully at them. "We were expecting you to arrive a bit earlier. I hope your journey here was a safe and smooth one. You mentioned the sand storm. Where is your transport station? Is it far?"
Zoe exchanged a look with Jamie. "We landed in our … er, craft … quite a distance away. We ran all the way over here."
The scientists all appeared confused. "Why didn't you use any of the hypersonic transports?" another male scientist asked. "They certainly would have protected you from the storm with their fully encapsulated design."
"Oh, er um, weeell," Jamie stuttered, "ours was … broken." He nodded emphatically.
"We had an accident with our transport," Zoe cut in.
Maura frowned. "Oh, what a great shame. Well, you are more than welcome to use any of the ones we have in our own station."
Her smile was back and she turned to a table behind her, picking up two pots of flowers and presented them to Jamie and Zoe. "These specimens are from our personal greenhouse."
Zoe nodded with an awkward smile as she accepted hers, a gorgeous orange daylily. "Oh. They're lovely."
"Aye."
Maura's pleasant smile then slipped into a grin. "I hope you don't mind our little joke."
The pair regarded her blankly.
"Well, your names, of course. Are you not Doctors Lily and Oleander Galliwup?"
Zoe's eyes widened in surprise. Turning to Jamie, she found him with a similar expression. "Oh! Yes, yes, of course," the petite astrophysicist finally replied, forcing a chuckle.
"Aye, tha's … a giud joke."
Maura's smile seemed nearly proud in nature. "I'll get Doctor Argnan."
"Doctor? But we're nae ill," Jamie spoke up, confused.
She tossed her head back slightly and laughed. Jamie wondered what was so funny. "He is the lead scientist here at this outpost." Her smile faded and she frowned. "There was mention of him in the advance information you were sent. Did you not receive it?"
"Um," Zoe floundered, flushing a bit as she quickly tried to formulate an excuse. "No, for some reason the transmission was cut off before we were able to receive all of it."
"Oh, my apologies. Such a thing has happened before."
Jamie grinned inwardly as he gazed at Zoe. Well done, canny lass.
"Well, he can fill you in on anything you missed." She then turned, gesturing to a row of seats in what appeared to be a reception area. "Please, have a seat while I fetch him."
Zoe forced a smile. "Thank you." She then nodded to Jamie to follow her.
As soon as they had sat down, she dropped the smile and then leaned into Jamie. "Lily and Oleander Galliwup?!" she whispered incredulously.
Jamie pulled a disgusted face. "Yer name is fine. But mine? I dinnae wish tae be named after some silly flower."
Zoe's face lit up in a teasing smile. "Oh, but an Oleander is such a pretty flower!" She gestured to the potted, bright pink blooms before him.
The Highlander narrowed his eyes in a glare. "Zoe …" he said her name in a warning tone.
Her smile faded and she sighed. "We're really in a pickle now. We're the ones they've been expecting?"
Jamie merely shrugged.
"They're a group of scientists, Jamie. And they're assuming we are as well. Which isn't a problem for me, but you? A scientist?"
Jamie reddened. "Weel we couldnae stay out in the storm, could we? An' we can ask if they know where the Doctor is."
Zoe conceded this with a nod. A smirk suddenly tugged at her lips. "It will be interesting to see you try to pass yourself off as a scientist. Oleander."
Jamie wrinkled his nose at her. "What, ye dinnae think I can?"
"Well, I can't say I'm very confident." She watched him nod sarcastically and roll his eyes, but ignored it. "More to the point, it seems we're a married couple. How are we going to convince them of that?"
"Leave it tae me," Jamie told her softly as he leaned into her again. He turned in the direction of the approaching head scientist, giving him a pleasant smile and nod as he draped his arm over the back of Zoe's chair.
The petite scientist turned to give him a questioning look. Jamie merely smiled confidently back at her.
"Ah, the Galliwups!" the man smiled warmly. " I am Dr. Julius Argnan. It is a pleasure to meet you both!"
Zoe politely shook his hand and smiled back as she studied him. He appeared to be in his mid-fifties. Of average height, he was a bit heavy-set and had short, thick, wavy gray hair and a neatly groomed goatee. A small pair of silver, wire-framed spectacles sat on the bridge of his aquiline nose.
He then turned to Jamie, his smile widening. "And you are the author of that brilliant paper!"
"Aye. Tha's me," the Highlander replied with a confident nod.
"I cannot wait to demonstrate how your proposed methods have improved our sample collection methodology. We've even expanded it beyond the bedrock and have begun extracting soil and other fine-grained matrix samples. I can't tell you how successful it has been for us."
Jamie flushed to his scalp, actually starting to feel embarrassed by the other man's effusive praise—only half of which he understood.
Dr. Argnan seemed to notice. "I'm sorry. It's just such an honor to finally meet you. We've benefitted so much from your research and work."
"Oh, weel, I'm —" he turned quickly to Zoe, "I mean, we're happy tae help."
The lead scientist looked curiously at Zoe. Jamie snaked his arm around her and patted her shoulder. "It was a team ..." His brow furrowed as he paused, searching for the right word.
"A team effort," Zoe helpfully provided.
"Oh, yes. Of course." He smiled at Zoe. "Well, let me give you an introduction to our study …"
"So, as you can see, your methods for core sample extraction were remarkably easy to translate over to those for the extraction of the finer grained material," Dr. Argnan concluded at the end of his tour of the facility. He had several other scientists demonstrate the equipment used, and had even shown them various samples that had already been collected, inviting Jamie and Zoe to study them. As expected, Zoe had been quite fascinated by it all. Jamie could barely be bothered, but posing as the supposed "father" of this method they were enthusing over, he tried to feign at least some interest and appreciation of their work.
The lead scientist smiled. "We originally thought we would have to come up with a whole new methodology, which would have taken a lot of time and effort. But we were spared such an ordeal, thanks to your versatile approach."
"Oh, aye. It's giud tae see that there are so many …" Crivens, he was stuck again. "So many …." He looked quickly to Zoe for help.
"So many applications for our proposed methods," she finished.
"Aye," Jamie murmured, nodding. "Anythin' that'll help ye save time is verra important."
"Yes, indeed," Argnan concurred. "We would love for you to help us with the analysis of the new samples we collected just this morning." He looked down at a contraption on his wrist, which greatly resembled a watch. "But I believe we can save that for tomorrow. In the meantime, I will get a couple of guards to show you where you will be staying for the duration of the project."
"Guards?"
"Oh, there's no need to fear. Crime is virtually nonexistent here —it's just our group in this area —but they're here mainly for general security concerns. They are also trained in medical first aid, in case any need arises, which, I can assure you, is also rare. It is always best to be prepared, however."
"Oh, yes, we agree," Zoe said.
A young man and woman soon appeared, ready to escort Jamie and Zoe to their living quarters. Both were tall and outfitted in the same uniforms as the scientists. Jamie looked up and gave them an awkward smile, then placed a hand on Zoe's back, leading her to follow them.
"After you get yourselves settled in, I would be honored if you would join me for our evening meal," Dr. Argnan called after them.
The two froze and turned around. "Evening meal?" Jamie asked.
"Over at the dining hall. It's not a far walk from here. The guards will show you how to get there."
Zoe nodded. "Alright. J—Oleander and I will be happy to join you." She met Jamie's gaze pointedly.
"Aye. We will."
"Splendid. I expect half an hour will give you enough time to get settled in your quarters?"
"Oh, yes, that's fine." A question suddenly furrowed Zoe's brow. "Is there any dress code for dinner? Our luggage was lost during the," she paused to clear her throat, "transport accident."
"Oh, no, not at all," Maura said with a smile, which faded as she looked Zoe over. "Speaking of which, we can provide you with several of your own uniforms, like these."
"Nae, I'll jis' keep this on, thank you," Jamie said, tapping his fingers against his chest and then fingering the edge of his kilt.
Maura uttered an awkward chuckle. "Oh, certainly. But you are welcome to them if you'd like to keep those handsome clothes of yours from getting soiled." She smiled appreciatively as her eyes traveled down his body.
Jamie blinked in surprise and then nodded confidently, a proud smile on his face.
Zoe wanted to roll her eyes, but instead narrowed them in Maura's direction, trying to decide whether the other woman was flirting with Jamie. She felt the Highlander nudge her and shook herself out of it as they followed the guards toward the entrance of the building.
Their temporary home ended up being just a short walk away, thankfully unimpeded by any sand storms. The guards had mentioned they were usually quick in duration, but could start up quite unexpectedly. It was why they preferred travel via the hypersonic transports, which had the added benefit of getting them to their destination instantaneously. Jamie wondered why they'd bother with all these buildings being so close to one another, until he recalled what they said about their sample collection occurring over a wide area.
The building very closely resembled the main facility, but was much smaller. It had an airy, open living room, a small bathroom and a bedroom.
As he ascended the short staircase beyond the entryway, the Highlander felt an uncomfortable surge of warmth through his insides as he recalled what had taken place during dinner. The food had been quite good and Dr. Argnan seemed a very nice man, but the way he kept heaping praise on them for their 'brilliant work' left him quite embarrassed.
He was even more embarrassed by what he hoped was an accidental gesture from Zoe. Fresh on the heels of her reminder they act like a married couple, he held her hand, put his arm around her. But as they finished up dessert, Zoe tried to reciprocate, realizing Jamie was doing most of the "work" of this part of the subterfuge. She put her hand on his back, giving it a light rub every now and then. But she was so absorbed in conversation she hadn't paid attention to where her hand was drifting. It had traveled quite far, nearly down to the small of his back.
Jamie had blushed and automatically arched his back, earning a curious look from a scientist across from him.
Back in the present, he grumbled, "How much longer are we gonna have tae pretend we're married?"
Zoe almost seemed hurt by the question. "Why are you complaining? You seemed to be going along with it fine in the beginning. 'Leave it to me', you said."
"Cause we're nae married!"
"So? You want to find out what happened to the Doctor, don't you? Play along, Jamie, or they will get suspicious."
"Well I will nae do any kissin', I'll have ye know."
"Fine. Don't."
They sat in silence, with Jamie clearly sulking. He then looked over at her briefly and looked away again, with a little shrug. "Weel, mebbe a kiss on yer hair willnae be so terrible … Or a wee one on yer cheek." His eyes then dropped briefly to Zoe's Cupid bow lips. He reddened and looked away.
The corner of Zoe's lip lifted in a mischievous smirk. "You can if you want to, Jamie," she said lightly. "I don't mind."
"Wha'?!" Jamie breathed, looking sharply at her, but then he realized she was teasing him. He then relaxed, and, rolling his eyes, rose to his feet.
"I'm turnin' in," he declared as he made his way to the door of their sleeping quarters, but as he glared at her over his shoulder, he missed the door and walked into the wall. Zoe burst out laughing. Jamie grew even more red and, with one last glare for good measure, he opened the door and slammed it behind him.
This was going to be interesting. Zoe hoped they'd get to the bottom of the Doctor's disappearance sooner rather than later.