MV 6 Snippet 2

 Sitrep: So, Goodlifeguide got back to me. They will hopefully get the manuscript back to me in 7-10 days. So expect it to drop sometime the week of the 21-26. 

Guardianship:

Preface: Guardianship is an odd what if story. No it doesn't have anything to do with the Boostrap universe.

Polar Bear Encounters took a full bus out to the best place to find the most bears in the shortest amount of time.

The best place turned out to be the town dump just outside of town and downwind of it. It was dangerous for people to bring trash there. The bears roamed the area more and more since the ice had melted. They were in search of an easy meal.

The tourists traveled in a tall bus with giant monster tires. The monster truck allowed them to pick through the spring mud and keep the majestic predators at a safe viewing distance.

They pulled up near midmorning and watched the bears tear into the dump. The guide threw out rancid meat for the animals to eat in order to attract them for better viewing.

Cameras flashed as people took pictures. Some gasped as the bears stood on their hind legs and leaned against the side of the bus to try to get at the humans.

There were nervous chuckles as the guide and driver assured them that they were perfectly safe. “Just don’t do anything stupid, people. Keep calm, treat it like a memorable moment. Take your photos while you can but don’t reach out of the vehicle.”

“Keep your hands inside the vehicle or you’ll lose them?” one tourist quipped.

“Something very much like that, yes. Though they might hang on and haul you out in one piece,” the driver said dryly.

Suddenly the animals were just gone.

“Where did they go?” one woman asked.

“I know they can blend into the snow but  …,” her husband said as he looked around. It was late spring and most of the snow was gone. “What happened? Did we scare them off?”

The driver looked to the guide. Both looked confused. The guide took his ballcap off and scratched his scalp. “You know, that’s a damn good question.”

===#===

Tanya Baker, a junior zookeeper in the primate care facility, was nursing baby Nasha in a rocker. The orangutan baby had been abandoned by her first-time mother Tisha.

The small eyes and tufts of red fur were endearing. It had taken a lot of time to get the baby on a schedule. She was finally putting on weight. They had an orangutan doll for her to cling to when she was sleeping. But first she had to get the little tyke down. Nasha was fighting that impulse though and so Tanya was resigned to being stuck with her for a longer period than before.

At least she was nursing and not hyper and wanting to play. That would come in time when the baby was older and less clingy.

She wanted to rig a sling to carry the infant around with her but she had to clean the cages next. That would mean a lot of moving and bending, something that wasn’t good to do with a four-kilogram baby hanging from her front.

She wanted to close her eyes but held off. She’d been teased by some of the other staff about it already once. Pretending to sleep on the job sometimes got the infants to sleep but not always. Usually the full belly and the motion of the rocker would lull them into a nap.

Just as if on cue Nasha yawned and released the nipple. She wiped her mouth on Tanya’s shirt and then her eyelids drooped.

Tanya gave her a smile behind her mask. They were wearing masks to prevent any contamination to the apes. She saw the baby’s eyelids droop further and felt her cross her mental fingers that this time it would take.

Just then there was a gasp down the hall. She looked up and then heard a cry of alarm. Then Nasha was gone.

She looked down in shock as the weight was just gone from her arms.

“What just happened?” she demanded, voice rising in alarm.

“What? What happened?” Doctor Khalid Shaen asked as he came into the room. “Where is Nasha?”

Tanya’s eyes were wide. “She was in my arms and then she wasn’t!” she said bewildered as other staff came and reported that the other primates had disappeared.

Radio calls went out to the head of the department and to security.

===#===

Doctor Sean Jamba hugged his coat to his body as he watched the inevitable. It was chilly, the whales had led the Japanese vessel on a chase. The environmentalists in the nearby boats had been forced off the chase to refuel. That would be tough in the rough seas.

Obviously, the hunters were taking advantage of the lack of defenders to strike. He watched a deckhand uncover a harpoon on the catwalk attached to the bow of the ship. He loaded it and began to aim.

He saw the harpoon go out and then just drop into the ocean. He thought it odd, but then he saw the whale breach. He imagined screams. He knew those monitoring the hydrophones were probably cringing.

But then there were no more spouts of breath. He frowned and then thought the animals had dived. He leaned over and checked the fish finder.

The deck hand on the nearby ship looked confused as well. A winch reeled in the harpoon line. It was slack so it came up fast. Everyone was surprised to see it come up empty.

“Where did they go?” the captain asked. “I mean, they didn’t dive, they just disappeared! We saw cavitation on the sensors and then nothing.”

“Really?” the doctor asked in confusion.

The captain nodded.

The doctor came into the ship’s bridge to see the recording for himself.

===#===

Dolphins that had been rounded up in a cove off the coast of Taji Japan suddenly disappeared as if in a wave just as the sun crested the horizon in a brilliant dawn spectacle. The hunters who had been waiting for the police to chase off the film crew of environmentalists were angry. Initially they thought sabotage but a check of the nets found no holes in it.

Boat teams went out again to round up another pod but no dolphins were found in the area.

===#===