Part 2

  Vilnius entered the schoolhouse flanked by Miska and Utena. They’d gotten the call from Ghor while they were working on the waste extraction system over at the saloon. Going over to check out the school droid was a welcome break from waste that was for sure. His young protégés certainly thought so and were more than happy to abandon the saloon's plumbing in favor of the clean circuits of a droid.

  Vilnius and his cohorts found the droid sitting at the schoolmaster's desk plugged into the power socket just as he should be.

  Vilnius tapped the droid's activation toggle on his back. “Wake up, Teacher.”

  The droid's eye began to glow and he looked about him taking in the three Ugnaughts that surrounded him. “How may I help you? Are you parents of my students?”

  Vilnius moved around to the back of the droid and popped off the access panel on his back. “No. We’re the maintenance crew. The sheriff wants an assessment of your memory and processors.”

  “Of course, I will comply.” The droid said matter of factly.

  Miska placed a tablet into Vilnius’s waiting hand and he plugged the cable into the port. “This won’t hurt a bit,” he joked mildly.

  The readout flashed on the screen and Vilnius, never one to pass up a teaching moment, passed the tablet to Utena. “What do you think?”

  Utena shook his head. Even an entry level droid maintenance tech would have seen the problem. “His logic circuits are out of alignment.”

  Vilnius nodded. He looked to his other side at Miska, “What’s the most likely reason?”

  Miska frowned. “Power failure?”

  Vilnius shook his head. His other companion spoke up, “Not power failure, the droid’s still talking. Reboot?”

  Vilnius smiled. “Yeah. When was the last time this old clanker was booted?”

  “Clanker?” The droid made a noise that sounded like a snort. “I’ll have you know. . .”

  Utena cut him off, “Looks like at least several months.” He pointed out a separate readout on the tablet, “Also looks like he’s not had a software update in ages.”

  Vilnius smiled. “Good job.” He turned back to the droid. “One of your students, Charles, was he here this morning?”

  “Of course he was,” the droid replied.

  Vilnius tapped the droid’s forehead, “Recheck your attendance rolls for today.”

  The droid made a sharp noise that sounded suspiciously like a quick intake of breath. “Oh dear. I don't have any!”

  Utena coughed out an Ugnaught curse. “This droid is a mess. He needs a full overhaul.”

  Miska agreed, “Yeah, he’s not gonna be any help finding the boy.”

  “What boy?” The droid inquired.

  Vilnius shook his head. “Nope, no help at all.”

  *****

  Kiro got back on the speeder bike with Will jumping on right behind him. As the bike accelerated away from the mine, Will tightened his grip on the deputy’s shoulders. He was scared. As never before in his life, he was afraid now. He loved his little family. He worked hard in that mine for them and he was happy to do so. Will would gladly have given up anything for them but the prospect of losing one of his boys left a gnawing pit inside him that he didn’t want to face.

  He tried to tamp down the emotions that threatened to strangle him. At this point he was desperate to be strong for Holly and for his younger sons.

  He forced himself to reject any possibility that Charles would not be found quickly and safely. Yes, he told himself, the boy will be fine. By the end of the day they’d all be having a laugh about this whole thing.

  Will looked ahead of the bike, over Kiro’s right shoulder. He was momentarily impressed by the deputy, they were rocketing toward town at a speed that would have been frightening under different circumstances. But at this very moment Will wished the deputy would go even faster.

  *****

  Kiro applied the speeder’s breaks as they arrived at Will's residence. A small crowd had gathered outside.

  Will jumped off the bike and headed toward the door with Kiro right behind him. The throng of friends and neighbors pressed toward the young father but Kiro stepped in front of Will and waving his arm yelled, “Let him through!”

  The crowd instantly calmed and parted. As Will passed there were pats on the arm and back. There were a few kind, encouraging words. Will stopped and turned to them when he reached the threshold. “Thank you all for coming. Give me a few minutes, I’ll be right back.”

  Will and Kiro went inside. Will’s wife was sitting on the couch flanked by her younger boys. They immediately jumped up and ran to their father as he entered. Will picked them both up, with some difficulty, and walked up to his wife who stood up to meet him, her breathing still wracked with convulsing sobs.

  Will set the boys down and gently gathered Holly into a tender embrace.

  Holly cried into his chest, “I’m. . . so sorry. I should. . . should. . . never have let him. . . walk on his own!”

  Will tried to comfort her, “It’s going to be ok.” He looked over at Sheriff Ghor. “What do we know?” Will’s emotional control was starting to crack but he was determined not to break down.

  Ghor responded, “I sent Ms. Lucy to check with the old folks, see if he went there and I sent Vilnius to the schoolhouse to check out the teacher droid’s memory unit. None of the local kids have seen Charles since this morning. Seems strange the school droid didn’t contact you when Charles didn’t show up this morning. I’m planning to send the folks outside to canvas the town.”

  Will nodded. “The Colonel is coming from the mine with some volunteers.”

  Ghor nodded back. “That’ll be helpful.” She paused, then asked, “Either of you think of some place he might go to play or hide?”

  Holly shook her head in exasperation. Will answered, “He knows the rules. He’s only supposed to walk straight to school and back again. He knows not to go anywhere without telling us.”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Charles is a good boy. He always follows the rules. He’s never taken off like this.” Holly added.

  Ghor put on her best reassuring look and put a hand on Holly's shoulder. “I know he’s a good kid. We’ll find him.” She turned to Kiro, “Take a few of the folks outside and get to the schoolhouse, check in with Vilnius and then make a sweep through town back here.”

  Kiro nodded acknowledgement. “Yes, ma’am. And you?” he asked, chewing on his toothpick.

  Ghor smiled thinly. “Will and I will wait here for the Colonel then we’ll take the volunteers and sweep up toward you. Between us, we’ll find Charles.”

  Will spoke up, “What about Holly?”

  She turned back to Will, “I called Lexa before you got here. She’ll be here any minute to sit with Holly and the young ‘uns in case Charles comes back here before we find him.”

  *****

  Lucy and Gary pulled up in a speeder outside her apartment. She got out and went right over to VP16s shed. She pounded in the door, “VP16! VP16!”

  There was no immediate response so she lifted her fist to pound once more. “VP!”

  The door slid open and Lucy almost pounded by the droid himself who was standing at the threshold. “Yes Mistress Lucy?”

  Lucy exhaled heavily. “Have you seen young Charles today? Will and Holly’s boy?”

  VP16 shook his head. “No ma’am. No one from town has been here for two days.” He took notice of Gary, who had also exited the vehicle and walked up to stand next to Lucy. “Master Gary. A pleasure as always. Shall I make some tea?”

  Lucy shook her head. “No time for that VP. Charles is missing. No one has seen him since this morning.”

  Carlo approached from around the back of the building. He’d been tending the garden and had heard the speeder pull up. He brushed the dirt from his hands as he walked up. “Someone’s missing?”

  Lucy acknowledged his approach. “Yeah, a young boy. Have you seen anything?”

  Carlo shook his head. “Haven’t seen anyone all day. We could check with Anga. She checks on the beast early in the morning.”

  Lucy almost smiled at the reference and surely would have if the circumstances had not been so dire.

  Gary frowned, confused. “Beast?”

  “Anga’s fathier.” Lucy supplied.

  Gary did chuckle at that but when no one joined him he trailed off into silence.

  Carlo was already walking up to Anga’s door. He knocked while the others came up behind.

  Anga opened her door and was momentarily surprised by the small group. “Hello!” She then took notice of the seriousness of her visitors’ expressions. “What’s going on?”

  “A young one’s gone missing.” Carlo explained.

  “Will and Holly’s boy, Charles.” Lucy added.

  “I haven’t seen him,” Anga replied, becoming concerned.

  Carlo turned to Lucy. “We should check the rest of the complex.”

  The others agreed and they quickly canvassed the rest of the apartments but the boy was not to be found.

  *****

  Lexa opened the front door to Holly’s home and rushed inside. As Holly saw her come in she ran over to her and they embraced. Holly started crying again and Lexa tried her best to offer comfort. “It’s going to be ok.”

  Will layer a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “We’re heading out to look for Charles.”

  Holly grasped her husband’s arm and said, “Please bring him home,” with some desperation.

  Will nodded. “I will.”

  Ghor joined Will and they both stepped outside. The crowd was still there waiting. Before either of them could address the crowd, a boxy, eight-wheeled transport vehicle from the mine pulled up driven by Glade.

  As it stopped the main hatch at the rear of the vehicle opened and the Colonel walked out followed by the volunteers from the mine.

  The Colonel stepped up to Ghor, “Sheriff, any word about the boy?”

  Ghor shook her head. “None so far.”

  The colonel grasped Will’s hand in his own. “Will, we’re going to find your son.” Then addressing Ghor he asked “How can we help?”

  Ghor pointed toward town. “We’ve got a group starting a sweep at the school and working their way back here. I suggest we start a sweep from here and we’ll meet up with the others.”

  The Colonel nodded his agreement. “Between the two groups we should find the young man.”

  “Exactly.”

  The Colonel turned to his employees. “We’re going to start looking from here, working our way back through town. We’re taking our orders from the Sheriff.”

  *****

  As his volunteers scoured the dusty streets of Utopia looking for the errant young man, the Colonel found a shady place to watch on one side of the street near the Sheriff’s office.

  Once again he tried to clear his mind. He reached out through the Force but as before he could sense the people around him, he couldn’t quite sense them individually.

  So it was that he nearly jumped when Glade approached from behind, “Hey, Boss?”

  The Colonel restrained a rather savage urge and merely replied, “What?”

  Glade held out a comlink, “You got a call from Tunnel B.”

  The Colonel swiped the comlink from his employees hand and cast a furtive glance around them. “Keep your voice down.” Seeing that no one was within earshot, the Colonel walked a few paces away from Glade for additional privacy. He thumbed a switch on the comlink and spoke into it, “What do you need?”

  “Colonel, sir, we need you to come up here right away. We, uh, caught someone,” the voice on the other end replied.

  The Colonel muttered a curse under his breath. This day was just not getting any better. “A trespasser?”

  There was a pause on the other end as if the voice was considering his next words. “Uh, yeah! A trespasser!”

  The Colonel exhaled. Some of his people may be hard workers but they weren’t always the smartest. “I’m on my way. Keep the intruder out of sight.”

  He shut off the comlink and as he walked back past his employee, tossed it to Glade. “I'm needed up at Tunnel B. Get me a speeder.”

  Glade offered a curt nod, “Right away, Colonel.”

  “Take charge of the volunteers searching here. Keep coordinating with the Sheriff.”

  “Yessir!”

  It took only a few minutes for Glade to find a speeder for the Colonel to use. He climbed aboard and jetted away out of town and toward the hills as soon as he was in his seat.

  He drove the speeder down the main road toward the mine but about half way there, out of sight of the town, the Colonel slowed near a large boulder near the right side of the road.

  The Colonel looked over his shoulder and then further down the road, seeing that he was alone, he maneuvered the speeder around the large rock. There was barely enough room to squeeze between the rock and nearby trees. Behind the rock, well hidden from the main road, a very narrow road wound its way deeper into the forest.

  The Colonel was forced to go slowly as the road, barely more than a trail, was so narrow that at times the trees were scraping the sides of the speeder.

  He gained some elevation as the road took him further away from the main road and further up into the mountains.

  At length, he arrived at his destination. The road opened up right before it ended at a sheer cliff that rose to a great vertical height. A tunnel opening had been cut into the rock face and a tiny shack had been constructed to the left side of the tunnel. Off to the right a cliff dropped off to the forest below. It offered an impressive view of the setting sun that the Colonel didn’t appear to notice.

  He brought the speeder to an abrupt halt and leapt out. As he walked toward the shack two of his employees stepped out and the door slid closed behind them. The Colonel recognized both men, Burke and Samno. It had been Samno on the comlink earlier and it was he who spoke first. “Boss. Sorry for the trouble.”

  “No trouble, Samno.” The Colonel also nodded at the other. “Mr Burke.”

  “Boss,” he acknowledged.

  “Where’s the trespasser?”

  Samno pointed a thumb back over his shoulder, “In the office,” he said, indicating the dilapidated shack.

  The Colonel sucked in a deep breath. “Well, let’s go deal with this guy.”

  Burke was suddenly uncomfortable, “Uh, Boss…”

  “What?”

  “It’s just a kid.”

  The Colonel stormed to the door and when he pushed it open he saw a boy sitting on the floor, back against the wall with his knees pulled up to his chin. He recognized the boy, it was Charles, the son of Will and Holly.

  The boy looked up at the Colonel. He evidently recognized the big man friend in the doorway. “Sir? I don’t understand, can I go home now?”

  The Colonel paused for a moment. Then spoke to the boy, “Stay here, son. I’ll be back for you in a minute.”

  The Colonel stepped back from the door and it closed. He turned to face the two men. “Walk with me.”

  He stepped past the speeder and over to the edge of the cliff with the two miners behind him. He stopped short of the cliff and only then admired the view of the setting sun over the verdant forest below that gave way rather abruptly in the distance to the shifting sand of the desert.

  The Colonel turned around and pointed to the shack. “Who else knows he’s here?”

  Samno and Burke shook their heads in unison but it was Samno that answered, “No one, Boss. The crew’s still in the mine. We came up to get another drill. That’s when we found the boy.”

  “The foreman’s not wondering where you are?” The Colonel inquired.

  “We told him you were coming up and wanted us to wait up here for you.” Samno replied.

  “We figured if you wanted him out of sight you didn’t want a bunch of folks mucking around.” Burke added.

  Maybe these guys weren’t the idiots the Colonel took them for.

  He nodded, “You two stay here. I need to find out what the boy has seen. Then we can take steps to resolve this situation.”

  The Colonel went back to the shack and the door opened. Charles hadn’t moved at all. He lifted his chin as the Colonel walked through the door.

  The door slid shut behind him and the Colonel sat in a nearby chair and leaned toward the frightened young boy. “It’s ok Charles. Let’s have a talk, you and I.”