“What do you mean they’re gone?!”

“Both of them are nowhere to be found, and what’s more, one of the signals from a black box is gone, completely.”

"Oh no..."

"I assume both of you can guess what happened."

The two people before him rolled their eyes. “Andy.”

“Of course it was Andy,” the man muttered. “Who else would it be? Tinker Bell?”

“Quit the sarcasm, that’s my daughter who’s missing, and I’d appreciate it if you showed her some damn respect,” one of the people said, stepping forward. She was an elderly woman, with wrinkles around her eyes, not from smiling, but from constant anger, the anger of one whom is unfairly dissatisfied with their life and has been for some time. She had the look of a bird, with a hawk like nose and tight face, holding herself with what she deemed to be grace and poise, but instead gave an air of shrewd self importance, one which colored how people saw her negatively. She didn’t know, of course. In fact, she loved the way people moved out of her way, the way they whispered as she passed. She thought it was out of awe. She was sorely deluded, as most people who are self centered and egotistical are.

“Shut it, you know I care about this too,” the man growled, his gaze taking on an angry glare. “These are two of the best astronauts that we have, I’d rather not lose them.”

“Is that all she is to you?” the woman hissed, stepping up to the man. “A tool? An asset?”

“You’d know about being a tool, Mrs. Farhall,” the man replied coolly, standing his ground and meeting her glare with one of his own.

“Watch it, Darrel,” Mrs. Farhall said softly. “You don’t know what I could do to you with my influence here.”

“I do, and that’s nothing,” Darrel responded. “You may be my senior in this position, but you have no power here anymore.”

“Stop it!” the other person shouted, panic in her voice. “My husband is gone and all you two can do is fight?!” Much unlike the other woman in the room, this girl showed an air of kindness and compassion, which unfortunately was ridden with panic.

“I’m sorry, Isabella,” Darrel said, sighing. “I admit I’m not in my right mind right now. This is bad.”

“No shit,” the two women said.

“What happened to them?” Isabella urged.

“They teleporte-”

“No, really?” Mrs. Farhall interrupted.

Darrel froze and took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “Martha Farhall, I swear I will have you ejected from this facility if you don’t shut it.”

“You can try,” Martha responded.

“I will succeed,” he hissed. “You retired years ago, you have no power here anymore,” he said, turning away from her. “Two can play this game of wills.”

“Stop!” Isabella shouted. “We have to do something, not quarrell!”

“I apologize,” Darrel replied. “Stress brings out the worst in me.”

“The same is true for me,” Martha said.

“No, stress does nothing to you,” he said, leaving Martha stuttering. “Anyway, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, they teleported at noon yesterday without the assistance of a technician.”

“Does that mean they’re…” Isabella whispered.

“No,” Darrel said, prompting a sigh of relief from both women. “By some stroke of luck, the planet had only moved about forty meters from it’s spot three days ago when Jordan first went there. It’s possible they could have survived the fall. With any other planet, they would have landed in outer space and been killed instantly.”

“What can we do to bring them back?” Isabella said. “What am I supposed to tell Parker?” It was a legitimate question. Her and Jordan’s son had been asking for days about when his father was getting back from work, expecting to be told that he had made some huge discovery. But this… this would be devastating to a young mind like his. Isabella couldn’t bring herself to tell him something like this.

“I don’t know,” Darrel said, saddened. He had met Parker and thought he was an innocent kid, not deserving of this.

“It seems fairly simple to me,” Martha callously said. “Tell the kid what happened and that they’re trying to fix the problem.”

“I’m against telling lies,” Darrel said softly. “We don’t know what to do about this.”

“Again, it seems fairly simple!” Martha scoffed. “Teleport another black box to the surface and make it use one of its fancy gadgets to let them find it!” Isabella nodded.

“Do you have any idea how expensive those things are?” Darrel said.

“Since when is monetary value more important than human life?!” Martha shouted. Silence filled the room.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” whispered Darrel.

“What?” Martha said, irritated.

“Something intelligent actually came out of your mouth,” he said, smiling.

“There’s a reason I held the position you currently hold,” Martha said pridefully.

“How soon can we do this?” Isabella asked.

“Right now,” Darrel responded.

Author's Note

Sorry this took so long to get out and is so short. I had a lack of inspiration, and wanted to show what NASA is doing.

So yeah, there are interludes in this now.

Part of the reason this took so long is that I've started a new story! It's called The Adventures of a Tone Deaf Pony and I'm having a lot of fun with it. It's an idea I've had in my head for a while now, so please go check it out.

In other news, tomorrow is the U.S. presidential election. I will cry with all of you fellow 'muricans.

~Pyrepinna

P.S.- This chapter is brought to you from thirty-six thousand feet in the air!