Benjamin lounged in the HQ feeling a restless boredom. So far, in the two weeks that Titus had been in the hospital, nothing of any significance had been discovered. Now that Titus had taken charge of the investigation Benjamin knew that there would be a new serge of energy and focus. Titus was a person of singular focus and determination. Benjamin knew that it would be impossible to convince Titus that the investigation was pointless even though he knew that there was really nothing to find. Benjamin just hoped that Titus would eventually accept defeat, admit to the council that there was nothing to find, and then they would assign the team a new mission. For the time being though, Benjamin knew he had to play along and try to investigate. As Benjamin considered the events that had transpired, he felt a certain admiration for the people who had accomplished this attack. They had executed a perfect attack which incorporated surprise, violence of action, and taking the initiative. They had achieved their objective and, apart from the extraordinary actions of Venna, would have exfiltrated with no losses. The thing he admired most was that they had not left a trace. They had also had a certain ruthless quality about them that he could respect from a professional standpoint.

As Benjamin sat in the mostly rebuilt headquarters, Venna walked in. She walked towards a computer console and began typing. As Venna stood there leaning over the console, Benjamin got a chance to actually observe her for the first time since she had joined the team. Not that he hadn't seen her before, but this was the first time he had seen her in civilian clothes. She was wearing a neon green sport tank top with black formfitting running leggings. She was extremely fit and stood with one foot forward toward the console. She had long straight shiny black hair pulled back into a loose ponytail that, while on mission, was usually in a tidy tight bun. Her almond shaped green eyes seemed to complement her high sharp cheek bones and olive complexion. By any standard, she was a beautiful woman. As she stood looking at the screen, her face took on a look of intense concentration. She was so intent on what she was doing that she didn’t notice Benjamin sitting a few feet away. Benjamin wondered how someone like her had become involved in Ab Aeterno. It was usually a landing spot for people who wanted to escape their demons by hunting demons. There were some who were more idealistic and wanted to protect justice or some nonsense, but those were few and far between. Titus seemed to be a mix of the two. He seemed to be running from his own demons by pursuing justice. Benjamin thought about what category he would put himself into. As he pondered, Venna finally looked up and noticed Benjamin looking over at her. She quickly exited out of the computer console and strode over to where Benjamin was sitting.

"Got nothing better to do than lounge around all day?" Venna teased. Her voice had a good humored tone and there was a slight mischievous glint in her eye.

"Well to be honest… in a way… Yes." Benjamin stumbled. "Now that the investigation has hit a brick wall, I have got nothing to do."

Venna just nodded as he talked. "Yeah I get that. I was running my five mile circuit on the base in order to blow off some steam and frustration."

"True dedication to mission readiness even when blowing off steam." Benjamin gave a mock salute. "What brings you in to headquarters though?"

"Well, about two miles into the run, I had an idea about something we didn’t think to check on." Venna's voice had begun to grow in volume. "So I came in here to use the computer system to check on my theory!" The words of her last sentence sped out of her mouth as if they were haphazardly racing each other to a constantly moving finish line.

"Okay, what is this theory?" Benjamin was unfazed by her enthusiasm. He felt that she was prone to emotional reactions. He liked to be more pragmatic or sarcastic, but never excited.

"I got to thinking about why we didn’t get prior warning about a ship approaching to deliver the attackers."

"Yeah, we investigated that and realized that they found a way to target our sensors and create a temporary blind spot. Another dead end." Benjamin interrupted.

"Not quite." Retorted Venna. "We were prevented from seeing anything coming right when they made their approach, but were we also prevented from seeing something leave?"

Benjamin's mouth hung open as he took in the implications of her statement. His eyes moved around mentally visualizing the new insight as if it was before him on a screen. Maybe I should be interested in her enthusiasm, he thought to himself. "So what were you checking on the screen?"

"I was checking to see if the computer had any readings. It appears that without a specific point of origin for the ship from the planet's surface it will be impossible to calibrate the sensor to look for where the ship went and predict likely vectors or trajectories.

"Sounds like another dead end.” Benjamin sat back and relaxed his posture. He knew this would go nowhere.

"Except you forget the fact that I saw where the men who escaped ran off to. We can go out and track down where they went. I can imagine that if we head in their general direction we should come across something that points to a ship or transport of some sort that picked them up."

Benjamin jumped to his feet and slapped his hands together. He hated himself for not thinking about this possiblity. It had the potential to be a significant clue and a potentially fatal flaw in the strike team’s plan. So much for admiring their attack, Benjamin thought. "That is actually really smart. I hate to admit it, but you may be onto something." Benjamin begrudgingly admitted.

"Don’t sound so surprised or disappointed." Venna laughed.

Brooding, Benjamin looked down at Venna. "When do you want to leave?"

"What are you doing right now…" Venna smiled.

…

Venna and Benjamin walked toward the wood line that was about a kilometer away from the headquarters. The area around the headquarters was intentionally devoid of any foliage and was relatively flat. This, in theory, would provide a standoff distance where anyone approaching the facility would have a significant amount of open ground to cover on their approach to the headquarters. As Benjamin looked at the various repairs going on, he chuckled to himself that the standoff distance had been less than effective. Shaking his head with a morbid smile on his face, Benjamin continued onward.

The two walked through a field with long thigh high grass waving in the slight breeze. Venna looked over at Benjamin, her flowing hair dancing in the breeze. “Benjamin, tell me about yourself. I feel like since I joined the team, I have not had a chance to get to know you or Titus very well, outside of your mission capabilities. I mean, I can tell that Titus is a good leader, but he isn't overly friendly. He is like a wall. And you are just a smart ass. Who is the real Benjamin.”

Benjamin was silent. He knew that at some point he would have to open up a little bit to Venna. She was nothing like Titus. She would keep prying and he figured that she wouldn’t stop until he presented some anecdote to help her connect. "You know, this area reminds me of home." Benjamin started. "I grew up in a rural town just outside of the ruins of Detroit. There were fields everywhere with grass just like this. My friends and I would get one of the farmers to use their huge tractor to mow a section of the grass in an unused field and we would play football for hours. My buddy Tom really loved the Los Angeles Lions and would get some guys together to pretend to be their 2220 championship team. I was always a big fan of the Rockets Mars expansion team before they eventually died out in 2232."

"That sounds like a great time." Venna smiled at Benjamin. She seemed to be soaking in his story with rapt attention.

Benjamin paused for a moment and stepped around a stump that protruded from the ground like a stalagmite. After navigating around the obstacle, he made sure to effectuate a vulnerable tone of voice as he resumed weaving his narrative. "I hate those memories. But in a way I guess I embrace them as well. You see, as a child I loved to play with my friends. I had such idealized and naive views about life though. One time a pass went long and went tumbling into the tall grass. Tom quickly sprinted in to retrieve it. We heard a scream and a growl come from where he had disappeared. We all ran in to see what had happened only to come upon two feral dogs tearing at Tom. They had ambushed him when he went to pick up the ball and as a small ten year old, he never stood a chance. We all grabbed rocks and drove away the dogs, but it was too late for Tom. He died gasping for air as his throat filled with blood."

"That is awful!" Venna gasped.

"It taught me a great lesson though that I still hold onto to this day. Death is always just around the corner and only the weak get taken before their proper time. Tom had been weak and he died for it. I vowed never to be weak." Benjamin commented, his voice appropriately sad.

Venna placed a hand on his shoulder. "I understand how you could come to that conclusion, and I don’t blame you for it. That had to be devastating."

"Maybe that's why I joined Ab Aeterno. I guess there is a part of me that wants to look out for those who are weak. And on my part, I feel that there is no room for my own weaknesses." Benjamin shrugged. He looked out of the corner of his eye at Venna. She was quietly looking away and dabbing the corner of her eye with her palm. Well it looks like that was enough to gain a little rapport, Benjamin thought.

He continued on walking as Venna stopped and looked at the grass to digest what he had said. Venna pivoted on her heals and pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. "Thank you for telling me all that. To be honest, I feel that this is the most serious conversation we have had. It means a lot to me that you would trust me with that story."

Benjamin grinned to himself. He hadn’t thought that she would make it that easy on him. He had figured she would want to dig deeper. With this anecdote he figured he had bought himself a decent amount of freedom from her pestering questions.

Benjamin chuckled. “Well, I don’t often like to think about my past nor do I like to share it. Consider this your once in lifetime ticket to getting to know me better."

Venna smiled at him. "I like getting to know you and Titus. You both are my new team and I feel that I can operate better by knowing you both better. So thank you for opening up."

…

They both arrived at the edge of the tree line nearest to headquarters.

"This is the area where I lost them as they ran into the woods. I'm willing to bet that there is a small clearing just past here where their drop ship landed." Venna pointed out.

Sure enough, as the two of them moved through the trees they came upon a one hundred meter clearing. The grass was tall enough that it waved in the slight breeze. Crickets could be heard chirping as they bounced through the flowing grass.

"Look for anything that will show that a ship was here. Maybe we can find where the ship landed and we will see where the landing gear imprinted on the soft ground." Venna advised.

The two of them spread out and began walking through the thigh high grass. They completed thirty to fifty circular search loops from one central point. Just as they were about to complete their search pattern without any success, Benjamin abruptly stopped and bent down to examine the ground. "Well something definitely landed here. There are some groves here in the mud that look pretty deep that would match the landing gear from a small troop carrier. They didn’t bring their main ship down. Probably would have been too loud or too big for this area."

Venna bounded over to Benjamin and knelt next to him to examine the tracks. "I'll mark this location so that we can review sensor data of anything leaving this exact spot and then track it to its final destination in orbit."

"That is good and all, but how will knowing their orbital position help us to find them. There is no way they are still here after their raid. They probably made a jump after they met up with their main ship."

"That is true, but something we have in our favor is the fact that our sensors are extremely precise. Even a ship making a jump shows it trajectory for a split second as it transitions from normal space to micro-space. Our sensors should be good enough to determine the direction they were going. The only issue is that once they entered micro-space we have no idea how fast or far they went. Speed entering micro has no actual impact on speed or distance while in micro. On that point, we may have to guess where they were going based solely on their direction."

"That makes sense." Benjamin conceded. "I guess this is the best we could hope for. Hopefully this will give us something to act on."

Back at headquarters Benjamin and Venna began to input the coordinates into the sensor computer. As the system processed the information Titus walked in.

"I heard you both were here. Any updates on the investigation?"

"We might actually have something." Venna chimed up. "How about you?"

"I may have a lead but it is too early to tell. So, tell me about this new possible lead."

Venna looked from the console up to Titus. She quickly filled him in on the morning’s events. "Basically, if this computer can use the shuttle's starting location before exfil, we will be able to figure out the most likely location of the shuttle. We just need the sensor to extrapolate the vector of the ship just as it was entering micro."

"All that nerd talk basically meant, let's look at the screen and see if the computer tells us where to go." Benjamin chuckled.

Venna's eyes rocked back in their sockets as Benjamin looked toward her, a smirk plastered to his face. "The program should be close to giving us a destination." Venna continued. The computer clicked and an image of the solar system jumped onto the projection. The perspective jolted to a position just out of the moon's orbit. At that moment, the computer manifested lines representing multiple trajectories based on the ship's vector. A voice from the computer AI chirped in. "Each line represents a possible trajectory." Seeming to read all of their minds, the AI continued. "The reason for multiple lines, is the nature of space travel being three dimensional and constantly moving; both from the start point and the destination. These lines also factor possible stopping points along this one corridor as well as adjustments for error. Each of these lines has known stop points marked out, but the ship could have stopped at any unknown point along these paths." The disembodied voice dissolved into silence.

Benjamin rocked to his feet and quickly manipulated the three dimensional projection to show some of the most prominent points of interest. "Looks like they were headed near mars, and possibly out to the asteroid belt. There are a few space stations along this route. That is probably our best bet."

"I agree." Titus nodded. "Let's inform the council and then head to Juno Station. We can start investigating the few stations in the asteroid belt and then slowly move toward Mars. If we can find the ship, hopefully we can get some more actionable intel."