“There’s one thing I completely glossed over prior to departure because I believed you didn’t know UFOs well enough at the time, but even if we were able to secure additional fuel, this UFO’s range is just twenty days!” Lokath tells Killanaus prior to going into his cabin.

  “All I understood back then was that UFOs could only fly for so long before needing refueling, but no more than that” Killanaus sighs, while reviewing how they could make the UFO’s fuel tank last longer than 20 days. “Surely one could extend the range by doing less atmospheric re-entry, or not engaging the cloaking device...”

  “It’s a pretty small UFO, but here’s the thing: I considered the need for constant cloaking and atmospheric re-entry. Even more so when abduction regulations mandate that, so long as you’re in orbit, you’re to decloak only when...”

  “I know, when beaming abductees up or down, when on data collection voyages. I may as well make the most out of these twenty days then...”

  And maybe ask them how it was like on their first UFO voyage. I was so busy getting caught up in my studies, in my lit review and also I had overbearing parents, so I believed that a twenty-day voyage would have been better than being home for that long, he then goes over the regulations surrounding UFO specs for those that can be used by licensed abductors, and what class can have which equipment fitted. Like a cloaking device being allowed only for use by certain classes of abduction licensees.

  But, even though ultraspace flight allows to cross interstellar distances relatively fast, it isn’t instantaneous. When the UFO’s computer warns them of an ETA for their arrival some distance away from the planet itself...

  “Reversion to real space in two minutes!”

  This makes Killanaus return to the cockpit so that he could activate the cloaking device as soon as the UFO is in real space. He’s also reminded of the legal definition of orbiting in an abduction context when he’s getting seated in the UFO’s cockpit. An UFO is legally considered in orbit around a celestial body when the UFO is in its gravity well.

  “Reversion in three, two, one!” the UFO’s computer warns its occupants.

  As soon as the UFO arrives in real space, Killanaus hits the button to activate the cloaking device, so that they would be invisible to the eyes of the planet’s residents. Or its early warning systems, if any.

  While invisible, they make their descent towards the planet’s surface, protected from frictional stresses of atmospheric entry by another auxiliary system attached to the cloaking device. The thermal shield generator.

  “One more thing: if the planet’s conditions allow for it, it’s best to conduct abductions under the cover of darkness!” Lokath tells him.

  “If, later down the road, I wanted to abduct criminals or abused/orphaned children, would that hold as well?” Killanaus asks.

  “No. This is strictly a research consideration; you want the abductees’ race not to notice you”

  Sounds like Killanaus is willing to at least consider getting a class-2 license. Provided the abduction licensure system remains identical to today’s when he’ll actually get his, Lokath muses while his student’s question is getting to him.

  “But sometimes you have no choice but to abduct aliens in broad daylight. My last voyage took place over a tidally locked planet” Aqqar points out, as the UFO is entering the planet’s stratosphere.

  “It seems like, to function as an abductor, just being able to operate an UFO isn’t enough...” Killanaus rolls his eyes upon mention of tidally locked planets.

  “How many electives do you have left?” Lokath asks him.

  “One”

  “May I suggest that you take Introduction to Astrophysics if you haven’t used your first elective on it? You now have a better idea of how astrophysics is of use to you as a future abductor!”

  Oh damn: I forgot about course selection for the next season! I worked so hard over the previous 14 days to prepare for what I’m about to do soon that I pushed almost everything else aside! Killanaus seems to lose focus when his advisor asks him about his future coursework.

  “Now isn’t the time to discuss this, please. We have abductions to conduct!” Killanaus keeps an eye on the altimeter as the UFO continues its descent towards the surface.

  “Speaking of abductions, take a look at the brightness meter!” Aqqar realizes that he’s flying in broad daylight.

  He doesn’t even need to look at the brightness meter to realize that he’s flying in broad daylight, and he’s flying around what feels like a major city of the native population. Remember what the Abduction Regulations said about Class 1 abductions: do everything in your power to minimize the impact on the abductee’s race.

  With that consideration in mind, he steers the UFO clear of the natives’ city, as well as flies into the darkness, seeking a potential abductee for the trio to experiment on.

  So it seems like, as they fly into dark clouds, Killanaus and his colleagues have finally located a specimen of what seems to be ripe for the taking. A poor traveler tending to a cart that broke down. In the rain.

  “Aqqar, please stay into the cloud; I’ll man the tractor beam!” Killanaus then switches stations for the tractor beam controls.

  As Killanaus gets a visual on the would-be abductee, the tractor beam projector, on the ceiling of a lower deck room, is being activated. At the same time, a hatch on the lower deck opens, while Aqqar is maneuvering the UFO into position so that Killanaus could beam the abductee up. However, the short range of the tractor beam makes it a balancing act to her, since she needs to stay inside the cloud, but at the same time, be low enough for the tractor beam to work.

  “The UFO’s in position!” Aqqar signals to the undergrad, while he’s ready to beam in his very first abductee.

  Once the UFO is in position to beam up the stranded alien, the undergraduate delicately grabs the abductee into the lower deck hatch, using the tractor beam. It feels so… good! Now that’s what I call an abduction!

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Speaking of the abductee, the abductee, a little green insectoid man with three eyes and antennae like a praying mantis, babbles incoherently, asking what happened, and where he was when the hatch closes underneath him. And, after the abductee is gently put on the closed hatch, the tractor beam is shut down. And is made to ride an elevator to the UFO’s main deck, escorted by Killanaus, who rode it down to meet with a dazed abductee.

  By then, Killanaus, wearing a lab coat and a N95 mask, starts sweating in his nitrile gloves, now that his very first abductee is on the UFO. What should have been a momentous moment to him instead makes him worry about how to keep a memento of it. Must… resist… the temptation… to steal! And the only memento I can legally keep of the abductee is either a video or a picture of said abductee…

  Even as he struggles to resist the temptation to steal from the abductee, he fetches a sterile DNA collection swab so that he could get a DNA sample from the insectoid at some point in the experiment.

  Meanwhile, Aqqar and Lokath prepare the apparatuses used to perform the experiments. For today, a taser, a neural activity scanner, as well as syringes with predetermined doses of caffeine. So it seems like the trio plans on exposing some abductees to the taser, others to the rubbing alcohol, others still to the fall of a box of a certain weight from a certain height. The abductees are further divided by the amount of caffeine being injected, of which there are three dose sizes, and hence there are nine groups of abductees for data purposes.

  As Lokath uses the taser and, after a few seconds, makes the abductee scream in pain, it’s then that Killanaus takes the DNA sample he’s tasked to take on his very first abductee. But time is short to take it, since the analgesic is about to be injected into the first abductee.

  “Now, Aqqar, the syringe of analgesic!” Lokath orders her as she takes a sterile syringe from a nine-drawer cabinet.

  While Aqqar is about to inject the caffeine into the insectoid, Killanaus labels the DNA sample’s bag before putting the abductee’s sample into the UFO’s liquid nitrogen freezer.

  Aqqar tries to find the right place on the insectoid abductee to inject the dose of caffeine while Lokath mans the neural activity scanner, looking for signs of pain subsidy, under the form of lower neural activity of a certain type.

  Is that it? My advisor wants to study pain in these poor insectoids, and how they respond to caffeine as an analgesic? I guess, studying how various races respond to pain might help understand pain… Killanaus realizes that, as unsavory that research might be, sometimes its implications might soften the blow.

  Once that part ends, the first abductee is herded into one of the cabins while he waits for the caffeine to kick in. But, for whatever reason, caffeine seems to have an effect that doesn’t line up with the effects of an analgesic. The first abductee seems to be hysterical as caffeine kicks in him.

  By then, Killanaus returns to the UFO’s tractor beam controls, in hopes that another potential abductee can be experimented on. Here it appears to be a highwayman of the first abductee’s race.

  “Time to abduct a new test subject!”

  The tractor beam stages of an abduction remind me of what mom did for a living before she retired. Before I went to university. She used to be a crane operator, but crane operators often retire relatively young, doing so in their mid-fifties, like mom, is common, Killanaus thinks while he hoists the second abductee onboard the UFO.

  Like the first abductee, with the insectoid highwayman, the trio, still tasers him and, administers a shot containing the largest experimental dose of caffeine. They also take turns monitoring the pain levels of both abductees, along with other potential effects of caffeine on these aliens.

  I could steal from both abductees before I send them down, but what value would these abductees’ possessions have to us? Also what form would a scandal take, upon return to our world, if theft occurred? The undergraduate seems to question whether he should steal from the abductees.

  “Just to make things clear: I don’t want more than one abductee per cabin!” Killanaus insists on that aspect of the work.

  “Remember to beam down the abductees in the order they were abducted!”

  The limited number of cabins onboard the short-range UFO makes the abductors feel like they are on the clock. That, as soon as all cabins are filled, they must beam the abductees down. Of course, they keep tasering the abductees and then injecting them caffeine, according to their experimental protocol. And dispose of the syringe in a yellow bin specifically for bio waste.

  Speaking of cabins, while they might have the size of a single occupancy dorm room at their home institution, for the abductees, they may as well have been palatial bedrooms. And even then, that seems to hold for the crew, too, albeit to a lesser extent.

  When the time comes for the last cabin to be filled, Lokath reminds Killanaus of the checklist to follow before beaming down an abductee to the surface.

  “It’s your first time abducting someone, so please get to the lower deck, and inject the forgetfulness serum in the abductee before beaming it down”

  “One more question: is it allowed to take selfies with abductees?” Killanaus prepares his mobile phone to take the selfie.

  “Only if you don’t allow the selfie to be distributed to the abductee’s race. I trust you know what you can and cannot tell publicly about abductees on social media when on research voyages!” this warning gives Killanaus pause.

  I can’t say what was done to one, much less reveal its identity, or anything else that might identify an abductee. However, metadata might betray my position. Yet, my parents have no idea of how to access a selfie’s metadata, Killanaus is also reminded of the mug shots that class-2 licensees must take when abducting criminals, or even abused or orphaned children.

  After taking a selfie with the abductee, he escorts him to the lower deck, with Aqqar standing ready to beam it down as soon as the forgetfulness serum is injected.

  Speaking of which, the forgetfulness serum is in another cabinet, on the lower deck. However, unlike the caffeine syringes, the cabinet containing the forgetfulness serum has only two drawers, and is right next to the yellow bio waste bin used to dispose of used syringes, as well as used or torn nitrile gloves.

  After injecting the forgetfulness serum into his first abductee, he gets out of the lower deck and fetches the second abductee on the main deck. At that point, the first abductee falls asleep, the lower deck hatch opens and that abductee is beamed down to the surface.

  Once the main deck has no abductee left, Killanaus throws his torn pair of nitrile gloves into the yellow bin, and, as he puts on a new pair of nitrile gloves, he makes a request of his other crew members:

  “I want all the abductees beamed up before the next round of trials begin. And then we can experiment on them so we can save some time not having to constantly leave the lab to beam abductees up and down”

  “Sir, it seems the cloud cover is gone. We need to move elsewhere to proceed with the next round!” Aqqar points out as the cloud dissipates outside.

  But this time, Lokath is the one piloting the UFO. He’s flying it under cloak, and then as soon as he could find another relatively small village in what constitutes evening on that world.

  Yet, before the UFO is in position, Aqqar asks the undergraduate a few questions about this experience of abducting aliens.

  “Killanaus, tell me, how do you feel about abducting aliens?”

  “The favorite part of abduction is operating the tractor beam. But there’s something to be said for doing things to people you can’t otherwise. The window to do so, on the other hand, is a little short”

  “In twenty days, you might not feel the same about performing abductions, especially since, while a properly structured experimental protocol can allow you to abduct lots of aliens in a relatively short period of time, if you decide that a class-two or three license is for you, you might not be able to abduct that volume of people!” Aqqar warns him. “You seem like the kind of abductor who wants to abduct people as if volume was all that mattered in abduction!”

  “Volume is not everything in abduction, but I needed to do abductions myself to realize that…” he sighs.

  “Graduate schools, and, by extension, the scientific community, typically take a dim view of volume abductors in your mold”