Almost two lunar cycles later, and ten days before the end of the current season, Lokath, once again, asks a favor of Killanaus in an email. It seems that you didn’t give me a satisfactory answer on how you plan on ensuring that you won’t commit more crimes on the abductees. To resolve the question, meet me behind the mall at midnight. Don’t bring anyone!

  “Damn! That guy not only speaks in riddles, he beats around the bush all the time!” Killanaus yells at his communicator’s screen. “That said, he’s my lifeline, so I can’t afford to antagonize him right now!”

  His mom overhears him, and then comes to his room. “What do you mean, Lokath is your lifeline?”

  “Dad is by far the bigger problem: he makes me break focus when I need it most! When I need to be left alone, especially for coursework, I can’t! He wants me to do chores in a certain way or at a certain point in time, when I know how a different sequence of tasks, or a different timing, is better... I just want to get things done!”

  Especially dishes. He wants to use the quick-dry cycle when I know why the sterile cycle is better for us. A dishwasher’s sterile cycle works by, yes, using boiling water with soap, but the rinsing stage uses near-freezing water, since a lot of the native pathogens can only resist heat or cold, rarely both. What happens then is that the pathogens that can’t resist cold crack open like glass and hence bleed dry, to their deaths, he muses while he tries to formulate an answer as to why he feels Lokath is his lifeline. When he finally does...

  “I want to leave home for graduate school, I told you the main reason. But to do so, I need to have a good off-season internship! And because of it, I must meet with him tonight at midnight behind the mall! So what makes him a lifeline is happening in the long run!”

  “I guess, better you tell me now, and I can then reassure dad that you’re away from home to get productive things done”

  I guess, concerns about criminal activities taking place during the voyage are too sensitive to be addressed on campus or online because of the so-called “ears in the walls”, Killanaus then prepares his stuff and, since it rains outside, his trench coat and umbrella. And drive his mom’s glopsk to the mall’s service entrance at its back.

  “It’s late at night, so make this quick”

  “I reviewed the penalties for each type of crime that might be committed by accident while on an abduction voyage. That said, I have questions about the security system of the UFO in which the internship takes place... Then and only then I’ll be able to answer any queries about how I could ensure that I won’t commit theft or other crimes against the abductees during the voyage”

  “I guess you only studied the implications of abduction licenses for the abductors, without learning what it means for the UFOs. UFOs approved for use in abductions need to have a CCTV system that meets certain criteria...”

  “Speaking of which, could it warn people onboard they’re about to commit crimes, or that a crime is being committed?” he asks, feeling that maybe the UFO will do that task.

  “No. However, remember this: if you commit a crime during the voyage, one, you WILL be found out, and two, you WILL be reported to the police once the voyage ends!” Lokath starts threatening the student.

  “I guess, there’s nothing more I can do but do only what’s strictly necessary with the abductees...” Killanaus, feeling a little down, sighs. “I wonder what’s the experimental protocol for the voyage...”

  “Speaking of that, it was a little premature to tell you about that when we first met. You see, each research project involving an abduction voyage requires approval from the AAA’s ethics committee as well as the university’s. Usually, the AAA’s approval can convince the university to approve a project, so research abductors tend to submit projects to the AAA first, and then their employer”

  “Can the AAA impose changes to a project’s experimental protocols?”

  “Yes. In fact, the AAA has historically been more likely to do so than the University”

  Oh, I can easily imagine how frustrating it would be for research abductors to be told that, even with the money, they can’t conduct the projects they fought so hard to get funded unless changes are made to the experimental protocols, the professor’s remark about the AAA’s ethics committee makes him cry. Especially since he also feels that sort of frustration at home.

  “What happens to licensed abductors who don’t implement the required changes, but otherwise don’t commit crimes? I focused on the criminal aspect of what can and can’t be done to abductees because you were concerned about the commitment of crimes!” the undergrad then stops crying.

  “The thing is that your license could be suspended, or even revoked, but you can count yourself lucky if your license only gets downgraded in that situation”

  “I would love to hear more about the final experimental protocol for this voyage and more details about it that are relevant to me…”

  “That must be discussed with Aqqar as well. I’ll let you know this morning or this afternoon when we can meet to discuss the pre-voyage checklist for each of us”

  I hope that he understands that the best abductors stick to the essentials with the abductees, Lokath sighs, while he hunches on the way back to his own glopsk, so named because of the most famous manufacturer of hovercars. Then again, I only gave him a glimpse of the bureaucracy behind the entire business of abduction. Which makes abduction a thorny political issue whose surface he only began to scratch.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  But the morning after that second meeting behind the mall, once again, his dad scolds him.

  “Why did mom let you use her glopsk to go to a meeting behind the mall?” Killanaus’ dad screams at him.

  “Why can’t I go meet with my internship supervisor in peace? It’s more than just a professor to me; he’s key to my future!”

  “Your internship supervisor seems to be a questionable guy, or working on an equally questionable project; why else does he make you meet in the dead of night, behind a mall?”

  “It was that or no internship! Do you realize that, without any research experience by the start of third year, my post-graduation options are much more limited, and I would hit a wall down the road! What kind job do you want me to have afterward?”

  “Just not an all-or-nothing one! All-or-nothing jobs will hurt you!”

  “Sorry, dad, but biology is not a major for people who want jobs that follow strict schedules! You let me major in anything I wanted, so long as I stayed home to do so. You kept criticizing my every move in college; now’s the time to face the reality of work in my field!”

  “You can always teach biology at lower levels, in which case it’s not an all-or-nothing job!”

  “I’m afraid teaching just doesn’t pay very well compared to jobs requiring an abduction license! I feel like you want to control my career as well!”

  Why is it that dad became worse to me in the past two years? He has been at my throat, almost as if I was an inmate in the prison he works at! Killanaus realizes that, while his relationship with his father has been tense for years, took a turn for the worse. I must leave home after graduation, and then I can get the career I want, without dad criticizing my every move! Just not in the way my classmates’ parents are.

  Later that day, as he attends the cell signaling course, listening to the instructor disgorging more information about juxtacrine pathways for the last time before the end of the current season, as well as taking more notes about these, he can’t help but get excited about the voyage he’s about to embark on. Which appears to interfere with his focus in class.

  Once the last cell signaling lecture of the season ends, he receives a text message from Lokath. Meet with Aqqar and I in conference room FS-999.

  “I got to go now…”

  “Where to?” Qinlei asks him.

  “It’s about my internship. My advisor is holding a meeting with his grad student and me for how the off-season is going to go”

  Luckily for him, the classroom in which the cell signaling lecture was also held in the Flying Saucer, which is a giant saucer-shaped building with nine above-ground floors, housing the biology department.

  He takes the elevator and gets to the ninth floor of the building. The conference room appears to be sized for meetings held by a professor with their grad students, decorated with posters from the room’s past users. However, Killanaus is last to arrive.

  “Finally, you have arrived: the time has come to discuss what the off-season is about. We’ll be researching caffeine as an analgesic in another race”

  “If I may, the first thing that should be done is to determine what kind of nociceptors the subject race have” Aqqar first suggests to the trio. “And, of course, their chemical action”

  “And the composition along with it…” Killanaus sighs. “Then and only then may some light be shed on how effective caffeine is as an analgesic on them”

  “Before the voyage proper, Killanaus, there are two things I want you to learn about: first, how to do a literature review, and second, piloting an UFO, in that order” Lokath instructs his off-season intern.

  “Speaking of UFO piloting, is there anything special I need to consider?”

  “The only things that require the pilot’s intervention happen at the endpoints. It’s a little trickier than driving a glopsk because of the third dimension, but otherwise what you need to do is to keep an eye on your instrument panel, and more specifically the sensor screen. You still need to input the coordinates of the destination manually though”

  It's only then that Lokath emails both with the experimental protocols for the voyage, along with the itinerary, the departure and return dates. And, for Killanaus, a bibliography of key papers to read as relevant to how nociceptors work, what can block them and how, and, of course, the most recent literature on caffeine’s effects.

  When the three go over the roadmap for the off-season, Killanaus’ eyes brighten. Each day spent onboard the UFO means a day away from my overbearing dad. However, only the data collection phase actually means UFO flight.

  But when he realizes the data collection phase of the internship only lasts for 20 days, he sees fit to ask the principal investigator about that stage of the internship.

  “Why does the voyage itself only last for twenty days? Licensed abductors can only legally abduct on duty, and lawful abductions require the use of approved UFOs!”

  “I’m afraid that, due to supply difficulties, fuel for research voyages is strictly rationed, and my allowance in fuel for this off-season only allows for a twenty-day voyage!”

  “If we’re going to be onboard the UFO for only twenty days, then this means twenty days of freedom I won’t be able to get otherwise as an undergrad…” Killanaus sighs, upon realizing the implications of the research budget cuts in his personal life.

  It dawns upon him that how long his freedom is going to last is limited by UFO fuel. What did I get myself into? How am I to secure additional fuel for our group, or funding for it, if possible? However, dwindling supply means that existing sources of fuel means that any additional fuel would be pretty expensive.

  “Even though UFO fuel is clearly the limiting factor, other supplies must be consumed while on a data collection voyage, namely, food and other hygienic supplies!” Aqqar points out. “So even if you were able to secure funding on your end to get additional fuel…”

  “Please forgive my lack of familiarity with the UFO world, but how long can the UFO we’re using store life support consumables for, just the three of us onboard?”

  “That’s a pretty complicated question to answer. Keep in mind law enforcement agencies have priority over us for UFO fuel, so even if we were able to pay for additional fuel, we might not be able to get it” Lokath warns the two students. Hopefully it’s temporary, but I don’t expect UFO fuel supplies to come back to their previous levels for the off-season”

  Upon hearing about the UFO fuel situation, Killanaus’ eyes no longer shine as they used to. Ouch. What freedom I might hope to obtain on this voyage will only last 20 days, whatever that freedom means to me.

  Once the meeting ends, he then texts his parents to inform them that he’s going on a 20-day data collection voyage off-world. And Qinlei, as well as his other classmates, too, while remaining mindful not to mention what the project is about, nor abduction, to his parents.

  But even when he tries to be transparent with his parents, to the extent that his internship contract allows him to, he dreads his dad’s response.