Getting rid of the thallium cuprate at Undu Manic went off without a problem, much to the relief of all the crew. Gnuto was still concerned about his ‘uncle’ as was everyone else. Donni was keeping him occupied with some lessons to get Gnuto back on track with his schooling.

The Green Lady arrived back at Gamma Obsidian after three days. It was a bit early to expect an answer from the General. Campo placed a coded message with the news feeds on Campalis in the hope that Gus would see it and be ready for extraction.

“It looks like we’re cleared, folks. The General should get back to us in another few days. Let’s have a bit of r&r. Gnuto needs some real clothes and we all need a bit of time to unwind. I just want to remind you that we need to be alert until we get a better idea of what’s going on. Mix up in groups of four please while you’re on the planet. I don’t want anyone hurt,” Blackjack told them.

The crew made off on a few different shuttle flights to confuse any possible watchers. Blackjack, Campo, and Finn escorted Gnuto to go clothes shopping and see some of the sites. They got a suite of rooms and went out.

One set of errands brought them by the main recruiting post. Blackjack slipped in and met with Gunny, retrieving a package with access badges for the military base at the spaceport. He then rejoined the three at a restaurant for a late lunch.

“Donni and Josef will be meeting up with us tomorrow. Finn and Gnuto will be going with them to the zoo for the day. We’ll meet up with them about midday after Campo and I talk with Dad. How about we get Gnuto geared up as one of us?”

That got Gnuto all excited so they headed out to a surplus store that the crew used. They got Gnuto fitted with a stout pair of boots and black utility pants. Gnuto opted for a flower print overshirt like Blackjack was wearing.

“He needs an earring,” Finn said. “How about a ruby for his birth month?”

Gnuto thought that was a great idea. They headed off to a tattoo parlor the crew was fond of and got his ear pierced.

###

Donni and Josef along with Barry and Angelo met them for breakfast at the hotel. “We heard you were going to the zoo so we wanted to join,” mentioned Angelo.

Gnuto replied, “I never been to one that I can remember, so it should be fun.”

Barry was smiling, “Neither have us, that’s why we’re here!”

Campo told them, “We’ll catch up with you when we finish with dad.”

The group split up as Blackjack and Campo went back to the suite to get changed into their shore uniforms for the trip to the base.

They grabbed a cabbie back out to the spaceport and entered the Marine base gate. The cabbie dropped them off at the command office and they presented their IDs to the officer of the day.

“We have a secure link with command scheduled, Lieutenant,” Blackjack stated as he handed over his papers. The lieutenant inserted the chips and their IDs to verify their authority.

“This way sirs,” he told them as he guided them to the commlink room.

Once the door was secured, Blackjack entered his code into the unit and waited for the call to complete. After a few minutes, the General came online,

“Hello, Charlie and Campo. This is a bit out of the ordinary. What’s happened?”

“We’ve run across a trace of Gus out here. Was he assigned to something?”

“He was still active with the Royal Guard. Let me check the posting lists.” Blackjack’s dad paused for a minute. “Hmm, that’s odd. It says he’s been attached to embassy duty for a period and is in transit back to the palace.”

“Well, he isn’t. We have his medal sir,” Campo told him.

The General was disturbed at that. “Are you looking for him, Charlie?”

“Yes, sir. We have a possible location and will be heading out there. Campo has put the extraction message out to get him. We suspect he had a mission going on that is very sensitive.”

“It wasn’t from me. He would have let me know if he felt there was a need for extraction. Where was he?”

“Campalis, sir”

The General checked his comp and responded, “We don’t even have a base there. He shouldn’t have been there at all. Was he undercover?”

“Deep, Dad. We’re pretty worried.”

“Go get him, Charlie. Let me know when you find out what happened.”

“Yes, sir, we will. We’ll bring him home Dad.”

Blackjack broke the connection. Campo looked at him, “You didn’t tell dad about Gnuto. You think something more is going on?”

“Yeah. I think we’re in the middle of a really big problem here. We need to find Gus and figure out how Gnuto fits in.”

They left the base, went back to get changed, and joined up with the crew at the zoo. The others had drifted in to meet them over the afternoon. They all left to eat dinner together. Blackjack brought them up to speed.

“Gus was out there for some reason. Dad told us to go get him.”

“I’m a bit worried about the whole thing folks,” Campo told them. “We’ll have to go lightly in. Gnuto will go down with us but I want to keep him in the shuttle with a few of you.”

The six that were on the boarding squad nodded, agreeing with Campo. The plan was to stay the night and take off in the morning on different shuttles. Departure from the system was set for the night again so they could arrive in the morning at Campalis.