The Spider Queen

(Hydra Star System- Lunar Colony Renoran)

(Northern Region- Base Camp)

Qiana glanced upwards at the sky but could not see any shifting or distortions which meant that a null field had not been deployed over the moon.

Okay… so in that case…

What that meant was that a person or group of individuals had set up a local communication blocker that covered the area of the base camp.

All she needed to do was leave the campsite and travel for a few hundred kilometres in any direction until the signal came back.

Wait…

Qiana frowned as she realised something.

Whoever had set up the communication blocker must have also realised that all one needed to do was to walk out of the zone.

It was easy to predict what a person would do if they suddenly lost signal.

They would try to establish a connection to the Virtual Net and leave the camp site as soon as possible.

Was this all some kind of trap?

The young woman lightly touched the sides of her glasses as she pondered about what to do next.

There were no easy answers.

The mystery of the missing members of the base camp was still unsolved as was the assassination attempt and the sudden disappearance of the corpses.

There was something strange going on…

The mystery of the missing workers in particular was weighing heavily on Qiana's mind as she walked from tent to tent trying to find any sort of clue to their whereabouts.

It would be easy to assume that perhaps they left the camp to get out of the communication blocker zone but why would everyone go at the same time?

There only needed to be a handful of people…technically it really only needed one person to leave the zone and send out a message.

And besides… why did the camp site seem as though the people had vanished into thin air unexpectedly?

Qiana briefly recalled the meat and food on the plates inside the tents.

The food was still warm, and steam could be seen rising gently above the plates. What could have been so urgent that they left without even bothering to clean up?

The heiress of House Abazin tightly gripped the knife in her right hand as she walked towards the center of the camp where a tent far bigger than the others was located.

There was still one place that she had to check.

Qiana pushed open the flap and gagged as an unpleasant smell entered her nostrils. Nadia had kept the inside of her tent a complete mess.

In the corner of the large space was a messy sleeping bag along with numerous canned food that were in a half-eaten state.

Unlike the food in the other tents, some of the cans had clearly not been eaten for several days and the smell definitely supported that assumption.

Qiana tried her best to ignore the disgusting stench and approached the large table in the middle of the room that was surrounded by metalloid devices.

She lightly pressed her palm against the top of the table and a green light flashed. The light scanned her palm for several minutes then a holographic screen was projected into the air.

Nadia had added her fingerprints to the command center upon her request a few days ago.

Qiana reached for one of the buttons on the table and a small input device popped out of its wooden frame.

She typed out a series of commands and the holographic window split into several smaller ones.

"There we go…" Qiana whispered softly as she gazed at the screens that displayed different sections of the base camp.

What she was currently looking at was the footage taken by the video recording devices placed around the campsite.

Everything seemed to be normal two days ago, so Qiana entered a few more commands and the recordings sped up.

Hmm… this was interesting…

There were no unexpected or strange sights in the recordings but occasionally the screens would shake and then be filled with a white distortion.

Nadia had claimed that the solar flares were responsible for the issues with the recordings and to be fair the screen was only blocked for a few seconds.

Realistically that was not enough time for anything peculiar to occur.

And yet…

Qiana could not help but try to look for a pattern to see if there was a rhyme or reason why static would fill the video feeds.

She kept looking at the multiple screens and the footage moved super quickly until it was around forty minutes before she returned to the base camp.

The camp at the time was bustling with activity and Qiana could see people moving to and from the different tents.

They were talking, laughing, and occasionally sharing a few drinks. Night had fallen so the workers were taking the opportunity to relax.

Qiana narrowed her eyes and focused on one window in particular. She could see the Nadia outside her tent and staring off in a certain direction.

She appeared to be talking to someone and yet there was no one else on the screen. Was she talking to herself?

Just as Qiana was wondering about Nadia's off-putting behaviour, the screens simultaneously filled with static and this time it went on for several minutes.

There we go…

Qiana waited patiently for the screens to clear since she could sense that was about to happen next could provide her with information about what had happened to the workers.

Eventually the screens cleared, and the familiar sight of a now empty camp came into view.

Just to be certain, Qiana replayed each screen multiple times, but the result was the same.

She could not find out what had happened in that ten-to-fifteen-minute window when all the workers had vanished.

What was strange was that there were no signs of a struggle or violence. Did the workers go willingly?

Qiana reached for a wire connected to the table and plugged it in to her wrist communicator. She transferred the data files to her personal device and then turned off the recordings.

She glanced around the dirty interior of the tent and spotted a small wooden desk tucked away in the corner of the room.

She walked over and opened up each drawer hoping to find a clue.

Nadia was obviously a target of suspicion but there was no proof that she was the one responsible.

Qiana searched for several minutes but eventually came up with nothing. She sighed heavily and then left the tent.

Feeling the cold night breeze brush against her face helped Qiana to calm down slightly. It was important to not make any rash moves.

She needed to plan out what to do next very carefully.

The young woman frowned as she felt a sudden burst of heat coming from one of the pockets in her body suit.

She reached into the pocket and discovered that the mysterious ring had somehow found its way inside.

"No thank you," Qiana whispered softly as she gently placed the ring back in her storage bag.

Clearly the entity had not given up on its plan to make her its vessel.