Note: I have dropped in on Tana's little scout ship and her crew a few times before. If you would like to read the sequence here are the previous flash fiction pieces:
Flash Friday # 106 -- The Replacement
http://zette.blogspot.com/2014/08/flash-friday-106-replacement.html
Flash Fiction # 141 -- The Outpost
http://zette.blogspot.com/2015/04/flash-fiction-141-outpost.html
Flash Fiction # 161 -- Illusion
http://zette.blogspot.com/2015/08/flash-fiction-161-illusion.html
Flash Fiction # 211 -- Teamwork
http://zette.blogspot.com/2016/08/flash-fictoin-211-team-work.html
Flash Fiction # 2999 -- Catchin Can -- 7 Part story starts here:
https://zette.blogspot.com/2018/04/flash-fiction-299-catchin-canpart-1.html
Tana didn't like being back on a 'civilized' world. She had taken assignment out on the Belgium, a ship patrolling the edges of Were space, for a reason. Walking down the streets of Ember made her twitch, especially when she knew they were all three bait.
Actually, Lisil was the bait. The Catchin stood a head taller than the two humans, his fur gray and black, his head catlike, and his ears back with a sure sign that he was no happier than Tana.
This was day three of walking along the market streets. They'd done the tour methodically and had lists of needed supplies for the ship they'd gathered in each of the four quarters. This was sector three -- herbs and even some yeast -- that all sent back to the shuttle. They also tried another small tavern nestled into the market -- and got kicked out because they had a Catchin with them.
Lisil had better manners and a lot more control than Tana or Krisin. They'd both ended up in fights while Lisil watched with a shake of his head.
"All for the show, right?" Krisin said as he stepped over a man who didn't look likely to get back up soon. "And I think the others are starting to get the idea."
"That we are more trouble than they want," Lisil said and sighed. "I don't think that's really what we want, is it? We need them to take me. If you two keep knocking them down --"
"Those aren't the people after Catchins," Tana replied with a wave of her hand. "That group is subtle. These people are bigoted thugs."
Lisil grunted agreement.
Then he stopped walking. His head came up, and he sniffed twice before turning abruptly to the left. Lisil pushed his way through a narrow path between tents set in a haphazard pattern, twisting and turning to the right and left along the maze.
"Lisil!" Krisin shouted in frustration -- they couldn't see him above the tall poles that held up the flapping cloth. "Lisil, damn it --"
A roar from the right. It was not a sound either had heard from Lisil before, but neither doubted it was him. Krisin had drawn his laser pistol -- illegal to carry in the market and liable to get you locked up. Tana drew hers as well.
They could hear a fight not far away, but the sounds were muffled and echoing oddly. The sounds grew softer. Tana grew more frantic and pushed ahead of Krisin. A few merchants yelled and hit at her as she pushed her way past their tables of wares. They were coming closer to the main street through the sector. She rushed out into a group of shoppers who cursed her -- and then moved off quickly when Krisin joined her. His red-faced glare, and the pistol he waved, probably scared them more than her snarl. She'd hidden the weapon again.
"We missed him somehow," Krisin said.
She nodded and pulled out her pocketcomp, keying up an exclusive app -- and nothing. Not a single blip on the screen, even though they'd tested out the tracker only an hour before.
"Damn," she said and shoved the device back away.
Krisin looked around frantically. "They could have taken him left or right --"
"You go right. I'll go left," Tana said. He looked panicked. "Go!"
She found nothing, of course. No sign of Lisil at all, and by the time she had twice circled the area, Tana knew she had lost Krisin as well.
When Captain Dundas had given them his assignment, there had been nothing about others disappearing. Catchin only, but as she started back toward the port and Belgium's shuttle, she felt as though someone could grab her at any point.
Tana should have felt better at the gate to the port itself. Guards were in place, but they seemed lax to her. She was within the fence, though, and that counted for something. The shuttle still sat two miles away, but now that she was close, she pulled out her communit and keyed into their system.
"Tana --" a familiar voice said.
"I lost them both. Lisil went first. We thought we heard him roar. Krisin and I split up a couple minutes later, and now I can't find him either. I headed back to port before I called in. See, I can follow orders. I want my fighter!"
"So you can go blow the hell out of the market," Captain Dundas said. "I don't think your missing crew would appreciate it. The tracker on Lisil didn't work?"
"It had right until he disappeared."
"No sign of it at all -- like it had been cut out and dropped somewhere."
She shuddered a little. "No. It just went dead."
"Our people have been monitoring crates going into port -- quietly, but we're certain no Catchin have been shipped that way."
"Not whole ones anyway," she said despite herself.
"We ran DNA -- stay where you are. I'm on my way."
"Oh, hell, no!" Tana said despite herself. "I've already lost two people! You think I should take the Captain of the Belgium out with me to look around? Are you crazy?"
The connection had gone dead as soon as the Captain announced she was on her way. Tana wasn't sure she wouldn't have said that anyway. She had stopped, though, out there in the open without many people around. Felt safer there, too, though.
While Tana waited, she wrote up everything she could remember from the moment when Lisil -- smelled something in the air. Nothing that she had noticed -- but then she wasn't a Catchin. Tana pulled up all the memories of those crucial moments when he took off -- the way he had been going before they lost all sight of him, the sound of the roar -- was that even Lisil?
Tana looked back at the port town. She had no idea what was going on, but she wanted her people back.
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