Snippet #1833322

Hal watched Tiara with bated breath as the scientist examined the mag he’d given to her, carefully inspecting it as she cradled it in her hands. The concerned expression on her face didn’t give the FOmar much hope, but he still remained cautiously optimistic. If Sunni had managed to find the mag’s signal on her own, then it was his sincere hope that the mag had some semblance of ‘life’ left and could be saved, both from a humanitarian standpoint, and from the standpoint that it contained vital data pertaining to his mission. Finally, after some time, Tiara assessed the situation, letting Hal breathe a sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness. I was really worried. I just saw how beat up it was and I feared the worst,” he stated, looking off to the side. Spacing out just a bit, he barely caught the mousey girl’s next question.

“If you don’t mind me asking, do you have any idea how this happened? The damage doesn’t seem to match up to local wildlife...”

After a moment’s pause for thought, Hal answered.

“...No, unfortunately not. I didn’t see what could’ve hurt it. My mag, Sunni, actually directed me towards the little guy. It was hidden amongst the bushes in the clearing where our target was last seen. I’m inclined to believe that it’s from the missing hunter we were sent after, but I suppose I can’t be too sure. Either way, I fear for what happened to the owner. I imagine it’s not often a mag is found like this.”

After another short paused, Hal continued speaking, a weak smiling forming on his face.

“But, you’re an expert, right? So I’m confident you’ll get it fixed up and good as new in a jiffy,” he added.

Tiara’s next statement about the connection port didn’t exactly bode well, the frown on the FOmarl’s face giving away that the prospect of the little guy’s survival just dipped down a bit. She continued to prep the mag on the work bench until the FOcaseal, Lucy, managed to sneak up on her.

With a healthy amount of curiosity, Hal watched the scene unfold as Lucy seemed to go into a trance, mimicking what Hal assumed was a conversation of some sort. It all seemed like gibberish until the FOmar started piecing together just what he was hearing. No, this wasn’t just any regular conversation. This was what the mag heard. Gil’s mission must’ve been to set explosive charges for a single parcel, and that silence must’ve been when he...well, Hal wouldn’t make the assumption that he was dead just yet. Either way, the ‘voices’ after that were definitely the perpetrators. And the last part...didn’t make much sense. ‘Water... water not right... Man no water...’ Could that be why the mag abandoned its master? Was that the mag’s actual thoughts invading into the conversation he heard?

Lost in his thoughts, Hal nearly missed Tiara addressing him once more.

“I’m sorry about that. I’m not sure what happened to her. I’ll work on repairing the mag as soon as possible... W-well, as best I can amongst my other jobs...”

Hal nodded, but decided to add some input of his own before the girl went back to work.

“I actually think I know just what happened. Well, sort of anyways,” he stated, crossing his arms. Her incredulous look made him a little less confident, but he continued anyways. “If my assessment is correct, I believe what Lucy just rattled off is its owner’s situation from its point of view, the mag only able to record what was said by the parties involved, as well as its own thoughts.” He put a finger to his chin in thought. “The only thing I don’t get entirely is the end. Water...the only reason I figure it’d mention something like that so alarmingly would be...well, it’d be the reason it abandoned its master and hid itself in the bushes.”

Hal leaned forward, examining the damage to the mag. Tiara was right. It didn’t look like local wildlife. Not entirely anyways.

“If you’re right about the damage, and I’m right about that ‘conversation’, then we’ve got a seriously bad situation on our hands. We might’ve just stepped in something a little bigger than the both of us...” he gave Tiara a serious look before he went back to smiling. “...Then again, we both could just be overanalyzing things. No need to get into conspiracy theories just yet, right?” He laughed. “Hopefully repairing the mag will get us some visual data and help us negate our suspicions. But for now, I figure the two of us need a little break. After all, I promised we’d talk over coffee sometime, right? Might as well be now, if you’re not too busy.”

All this stuff was getting a little heavy, and Hal felt he needed to help both him and Tiara lighten up a bit. A nice coffee break would do just the trick, or so he thought.