What is missing and what waits

CHAPTER 12 — What Is Missing and What Waits

Morning came through Sira's window with the same quiet light as always.
Birds outside.The green, orderly garden.Cromatica waking slowly.
Sira got up with the routine of someone who had things to do and knew exactly what they were. She dressed. Went to the desk. Looked at the previous day's lists, all completed, and felt for a moment that small, honest satisfaction of starting the day with no pending debts.
Then she opened the bottom drawer.
She froze.
The dark cloth was there.But what should have been inside wasn't.
She picked it up. Opened it. Shook it, as if the Kratar might appear from some fold she hadn't seen before.
Nothing.
She searched the entire drawer. Moved the papers. Checked the drawers above.
Nothing.
She sat down in the desk chair.Stared at the empty cloth in her hands.
She didn't panic.Sira didn't panic.
But something cold settled in her chest with the precision of a logical conclusion she didn't want to be true.
The Kratar hadn't moved on its own.
---
She took her communicator.Called Marek first.
On the farm, Marek was in the field with Joe when he felt the vibration in his pocket. He saw Sira's name. Answered immediately.
"What happened?"
Sira's voice came direct. No preamble.
"The Kratar is gone."
Silence.
"What do you mean, gone?"
"It's not in the drawer. It's not in the room. I checked everything."
Marek processed that for two seconds.
"I'll call Arlo. We'll be at your mansion in twenty minutes."
"I'm already calling him."
They hung up.
Joe looked at him from the row he was clearing.
"Everything okay?"
Marek looked at the horizon for a moment.
"I have to go, Grandpa."
Joe nodded slowly.Without asking more.
---
The three gathered at Sira's mansion in less than expected.
Arlo arrived last, his hair more electrified than usual, a tablet in his hand where he had already started processing something.
"When was the last time you saw it?" he asked directly.
"Last night. I put it away after Marek left." Sira looked at the open drawer. "This morning it was gone."
"Did anyone break in?"
"No signs of forced entry anywhere." Sira frowned slightly. "Whatever took it knew exactly where it was and how to get in without leaving a trace."
The three looked at each other.Arlo lowered the tablet.
"That's not an ordinary thief."
"No," Marek said.
Silence.Marek thought of Zarpon. Of Zekra. Of the week of rest that was ending anyway.
"We have to go back to Zekra," he said.
"I was about to say that," Sira replied.
"I already have the ship ready," Arlo said. "Technically, I had it ready since yesterday because I was bored."
---
They prepared in less than an hour.
Marek put on his dark blue armor suit with the red K in the center of his chest.Sira put on her pink armor suit with the red K in the center of her chest.Arlo put on his white armor suit with some gray details, with the red K in the center of his chest.
No long goodbyes this time.
Joe was at the farm gate when Marek came to pick up what he needed. The old man looked at him with that expression he had when he knew more than he let on.
"Come back," he said simply.
"Always," Marek replied.
And he left.
---
The black zekran ship with gold details took off from the outskirts of Cromatica with the naturalness of something that had made that movement before.
It pierced the clouds.The sky turned dark.The stars appeared.
The three were on the bridge. Sira checked data on the side screen. Arlo piloted with one hand and adjusted systems with the other. Marek stood looking ahead into space.
"How long until Zekra?" he asked.
"At this speed," Arlo said, "about three hours."
Marek nodded.He kept watching space.
Something still didn't fit. The theft. The timing. The precision with which someone had entered and left without leaving a trace.
"Who knew the Kratar was in your room?" he asked Sira.
"The three of us," Sira said. "And Zarpon."
"Zarpon wouldn't do that."
"I know."
"Anyone else?"
Sira thought."No one. I never mentioned it to anyone."
Silence.Arlo spoke without taking his eyes off the controls.
"Then someone saw us."
The words landed on the bridge with the weight of a conclusion none of them wanted but all were already processing.
---
The alarm went off forty minutes later.
Not gradual. Immediate and total. The bridge screens filled with red data. The ship vibrated slightly from something that wasn't turbulence.
"What was that?" Marek said.
Arlo was already on the controls with a speed he only had when something real was happening.
"Blockade signal," he said. "Multiple. Coming from..."
He looked at the screen.His hands stopped for a second.
"Satellites," he said.
"Whose satellites?" Sira asked, though she already knew the answer.
"Trinita."
They appeared on the navigation screen as white dots moving in convergent formation toward the ship's position.
Four satellites.Not large. Not warships. But with enough weaponry for what they needed to do.
Block.Or destroy.
---
The first shot passed twenty meters from the left hull.The ship shook with the shockwave.
"Arlo!" Marek said.
"I see it, I see it," Arlo replied, with the total concentration of someone calculating five things at once. "We have no offensive weapons. This ship wasn't designed for combat."
"Can we dodge them?"
"Depends on how long. They're autonomous satellites. No pilot. They respond to programmed protocols. If I figure out the pattern, I can anticipate the shots, but I need..."
Another impact. Closer this time.The ship veered sharply. Sira held onto the side panel. Marek absorbed the movement with the balance of someone trained for it.
"I need time," Arlo finished.
"I'll give it to you," Marek said.
Sira looked at him."What are you going to do?"
Marek was already moving toward the side hatch."What I know how to do."
---
The hatch opened to the vacuum of space.
Marek's yellow aura ignited around him with an intensity he hadn't used since Zekra. Not the controlled flame of valley training. Something denser. More determined.
He went out.
Space was silent and absolute around him. No gravity. No up or down. Just stars in every direction and four white dots converging toward the ship.
Marek looked at them.Calculated.
The first satellite was two hundred meters away.He moved toward it.
---
On the bridge, Sira monitored Marek's position on the screen while Arlo piloted with maneuvers that compensated for the remaining shots.
"He's going for the first one," Sira said.
"I see him," Arlo said. "I need thirty more seconds to figure out the pattern of the other three."
"Marek is buying us that time."
"I know." A pause. "Don't lose sight of him."
---
Marek reached the first satellite.It was larger up close. Metallic. With the trinita light blue line running along its structure. A mechanical eye that rotated to track the ship.
The eye found him.Reoriented.
Marek didn't wait.His strike, with the yellow aura, went straight for the satellite's energy core. Not a training strike. Not contained.
The satellite powered down.It drifted uncontrolled into open space.
Three remaining.
---
The second turned toward Marek.Fired.
Marek moved. The blue energy beam passed meters from him, lighting up space for a second.
He reached the second satellite before it could recharge.Same result.
---
"Pattern identified," Arlo said on the bridge. "The remaining two will converge on our position in twelve seconds. If we move now toward the sector..."
"Marek is still outside," Sira interrupted.
"I know. I need him back."
Sira activated the external communicator.
"Marek. Two satellites. Twelve seconds. Get in."
The response came without words.Only the yellow aura, igniting with more intensity on the tracking screen.
---
Marek saw the two remaining satellites moving in convergence.Not toward the ship.Toward him.
He processed that in one second.Reprogrammed. Now I'm the target.
Good.If they were coming for him, they weren't going for the ship.
He stayed still.Let them approach.
Twenty meters.Ten.Five.
His aura exploded outward in all directions.Not a strike. An expansion. Like a wave that radiated from the center of his body and reached both satellites simultaneously.
Both powered down.They drifted.
Space fell silent again.
---
Marek returned to the ship.The hatch closed.His aura extinguished.
He leaned against the corridor wall for a moment, breathing more deeply than usual.
Sira appeared in the doorway.She looked him up and down.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes."
"Sure?"
"Yes, Sira."
She nodded.No more questions.
They returned to the bridge.
Arlo looked at them as they entered.
"Four trinita satellites," he said. "In Earth space. Monitoring exit routes from the planet."
No one answered immediately.They didn't need to.
The implications were clear.Someone had been on Earth.Someone who knew where the Kratar was.Someone who had left satellites to make sure no one followed.
"Germon," Marek said.Not a question.
Sira looked at the screen where the four satellites drifted, dead, in space.
"He was here," she said quietly. "While we were on Earth. He saw us. And he took the Kratar."
Silence on the bridge.
Arlo looked at the controls.
"Do we keep heading for Zekra?"
Marek sat down.
"Yes," he said. "We need to know what happened there too."
The ship resumed its course.The stars passed by outside in silence.
And the three traveled toward what awaited them, still unaware of the full magnitude of what they had lost.


END OF CHAPTER 12