However, the trio keeps abducting more alien (to them) test subjects, subject to the space constraint onboard, and performing the same experiments on them until they feel hungry. Killanaus feels the grad student’s hunger but she storms off to the galley.

  “Time to eat, Killa...” Lokath tells him.

  “Not now, sir, we need to beam down the test subjects first!” Killanaus insists while he feels like he can’t leave the abductees in the cabins while the other two are in the galley.

  “Beam them down yourself then!”

  Even I knew that it would take much longer to beam down alien abductees if I had to do this alone... If only the tractor beam controls were on the same deck as the hatch, but I suspect safety is the main reason for why not to have the controls on the same deck, Killanaus is reminded of the crane hover pods her mom operated back in the day: the seat is atop the tractor beam.

  Once he has finished beaming abductees down to the surface, and disposes of the nitrile gloves and N95 mask after the last abductee is on the surface, he realizes that the others have almost finished eating. And also how much time he would save if there’s someone either injecting the forgetfulness serum or at the tractor beam controls and he performs the other task.

  “With a team, you can abduct many more aliens than you can on your own. However, I wonder why do the scientific community take a dim view of abductors who want volume, when bigger sample sizes usually result in better science? Subject to the limitations in sampling of course...” Killanaus asks Aqqar when he gets tubers from the replicator, which is linked to the waste closet.

  “Volume abductors tend to leave a bigger footprint on abductees’ races, and it’s known for a while now that abductees get traumatized by abductions, just with race-dependent effects!” Aqqar tells him. “I guess, good thing that our UFO is not that big, and is subject to the twelve-passenger rule”

  “I’m not very familiar with the regulations in place for UFOs used for abductions, but what makes the twelve-passenger rule so important to abductors? All I can make out is that abductees are legally considered passengers, and abductors, crew!”

  “It’s much wider-ranging than just abduction alone. You have one set of regulations that apply to you if you operate an UFO with twelve pax or fewer, and another, much more restrictive one if you carry thirteen pax or more” Aqqar explains to him.

  Damn it! I focused too much on the legal aspects of the abductions themselves, how the law prescribes a set of procedures for abducting that I didn’t study what it meant for abductors and how they operate UFOs, Killanaus muses as he fetches the tubers, which look like caramelized asparagus, from a microwave oven-sized appliance that takes bodily waste and transforms them into food.

  But even then, because part of the food is metabolized, a supply of “regular” food must still be loaded onboard an UFO. Just less of it for a given crew size and voyage length.

  “Let’s just back up a bit. What impact does volume abduction have on abductees’ races that targeted abduction wouldn’t have?” Killanaus asks her a question that he feels he couldn’t ask back on their home world.

  “That’s the sort of thing that would-be abductors usually learn in grad school. There are two main risks: beaming down abductees with alien pathogens in tow and then cause a potentially deadly epidemic in their race by accident, or even if all hygiene precautions were taken and no pathogens were beamed down, accidentally causing or aggravating civil unrest, going all the way to an uprising!”

  Out here in orbit, I can also discuss topics I might not be able to. My parents aren’t the type to discuss stuff at that level of depth. Sure, some of my bio classmates in college might be willing to discuss some other intellectual topics, but abductions and their impact are a little taboo, the undergrad starts thinking about another aspect of what freedom means to him for the next 19 days.

  “Maybe a wave of serial abductions might be enough to sow or aggravate discontent towards their native government, because they feel like the abductees’ race’s current regime, having failed to act properly, aren’t worthy of ruling. Perhaps under the form of rebellious religious fundamentalists, with abductees and their loved ones at their core”

  As an undergraduate, there were those who had an one-track mind, who only think about learning and understanding their field of choice. A lot of them went into research or healthcare professions. Then you have those guys like Killanaus, who are better-rounded. Working on a voyage with him just doesn’t feel the same as the one I worked with during the last voyage. That guy was one-dimensional intellectually, Aqqar reflects on how this voyage differed from the previous one.

  “Speaking of which, I now have a better idea of why I shouldn’t steal from abductees, beyond the criminal aspect...” Killanaus sighs, and then goes to his advisor’s cabin.

  Once at his advisor’s cabin, he knocks on the door while Lokath is busy looking at preliminary results even though the sample isn’t complete yet. And, of course, a backup of the day’s data is made.

  “Come in!” Lokath invites him to enter the cabin, which isn’t actually much different from the ones of the students.

  “I now have a better idea of why I shouldn’t steal from abductees. For too long now, I kept focusing on the criminal aspect, and the scandal that could erupt if a crime was committed during this voyage!”

  “What do you think it is then?”

  “Hygiene. Stuff stolen from abductees might contain alien pathogens, especially unidentified ones! Same goes for the abductees, too! I was told about how abductors might spread an epidemic among the abductees’ race, and how abductees could do the same to us!”

  “You now understand why regulations require us to wear a lab coat, nitrile gloves and N95 masks: to prevent the abductees from communicating diseases to us, and vice versa. Speaking of lab coat, you really should put yours in the dry cleaning machine! And it took you forever to understand how a scandal could erupt because of theft!”

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

  “I wonder if such a scandal really happened; these things sound nasty”

  “It happened in the early days of ultraspace flight, where a research expedition brought back a trinket from a test subject that caused an epidemic. Several members of the expedition were charged with criminal negligence having caused death after the resulting epidemic killed thousands. The university these people were affiliated with was forced to severely curtail the activities of its biology department, so much that it wasn’t allowed to conduct any research, nor to grant degrees. They’re still banned from doing so, and the university in question decided to focus on the humanities and social sciences. All that bio department was allowed to do afterwards was to teach remedial and intro bio courses!”

  “Did people call for special training for abductors back then?”

  “Yes, and it led to the creation of the ancestor of today’s abduction licensure system, as well as the AAA’s predecessor”

  A LED bulb flashes in his mind. Now I have a better idea of why he insists on me knowing the regulations around abduction, and why, despite his shady practices, he wants us to respect said regulations. And he made me feel like the abduction world is very legalistic.

  “Was it enough to satisfy the public, knowing that abductions can cause trauma to linger in abductees, even in the absence of any diseases?” Killanaus asks his advisor.

  “You can easily imagine the population was unhappy, with some calling for research abductions to be outlawed entirely. However, research abductions remained legal, but the regulatory burden on abductors increased significantly after that”

  Aqqar then enters the advisor’s cabin. “To avoid the risk of accidentally causing civil unrest among the abductees, we need to fly away from this area to conduct tomorrow’s round of abductions!”

  “Good on you, Aqqar, so you’re going to fly the UFO to ensure that tomorrow’s round of abductions don’t cause undue civil unrest!” Lokath gives his instructions to her.

  Lokath remains with Killanaus to discuss other important events in the history of abduction licensing. Such as when law enforcement was given the power to abduct criminals for whom arrest warrants are issued, and when CPS was given the authority to abduct abused or neglected children as well as orphans. These things also make him go back and read about the political environment in which these pieces of legislation have been signed into law. It's then that he returns to his cabin.

  And, after some time poring over historical articles on the topic, he realizes these laws were enacted under the same administration, albeit at different points. Clearly that administration believed that abductions could be used for something other than research, but I wonder if there were hordes of abduction licensees unable to get jobs back then. It makes me feel like a measure to stave off civil unrest, by providing other means for abductors to get work.

  Because he feels like he needs to understand the origins of what he could feel is his calling, he’s willing to read about the history of abductions, as well as regulations as relevant to the use of UFOs in abductions. Namely what an UFO used for research abductions must and mustn’t have. However, by the end of this round of reading, he feels a little tired, especially since he read about abduction history for hours.

  But because of his tireless dedication to learn more about the evolution of abduction as a profession, Killanaus sleeps last that day. That’s so much better than at home; here I can manage my time much better than I could have and do way more. My dad was disruptive with his scheduling. However, I’m left wondering how abductor B could tell that abductor A either caused or worsened civil unrest or an epidemic among a race through abductions.

  When he awakens the following day, Lokath announces to the other two students the following, before they don lab coats, N95 masks and nitrile gloves for the abductions of the day:

  “Since yesterday, we performed seventy percent of the abduction allotment under our sampling plan, to make our life easier, we’ll finish abducting earlier today!”

  “Can we start abducting people for the second group today if we finish the first group early?” Aqqar asks.

  “I wonder if it’s a good idea. Our initial plan called for two days per group of abductees. Even if the protocol remains otherwise unchanged, is that a legal change?” Killanaus asks, befuddled by the regulatory complexity of research abductions.

  Lokath answers the undergrad’s question. “That’s one of the only areas where abduction regulations give us any flexibility. At least regulators understand that sometimes you can’t get abductions done because of factors outside the abductors’ control! Of course it’s an allowed change!”

  Killanaus is one of those guys who wants abductions to be done as efficiently as possible. However, whether he really has what it takes to earn a scholar’s degree remains to be seen, Lokath muses as Killanaus mans the tractor beam for the first round of abductions, lasting until the first drawer filled with caffeine syringes is emptied.

  Once said drawer is empty, and the last of the first abductee group is beamed down, the trio takes a lunch break, this time eating “regular” food. Killanaus discusses the 12-pax rule, asking about its implications for licensed abductors:

  “For now, all I know about UFOs approved for abduction use is the need to have a cloaking device as well as a tractor beam rated for hoisting up to a certain mass. I never really understood what made the twelve-pax rule so important to abductors”

  “It’s about UFO safety: even if you held the proper license and performed all the abductions according to the regulations, you can get arrested for illegally holding more than twelve abductees at any given time, if your UFO isn’t legally rated to do so!”

  “Because I never flew on an UFO before this voyage, I’m clueless about how would an UFO carrying more than twelve abductees need, compared to another one that can only carry twelve abductees…”

  Lokath then texts him a comparative chart of what an UFO carrying more than 12 pax needs to have vs another one subject to the 12-pax rule: escape pods for a total number of occupants, double hull, damage control systems needing to meet higher specs, emergency exit identification, as well as emergency power being the main ones. Oh boy, this is one expensive proposition for an UFO owner.

  “Surely there’s some rescue provision that could make an UFO subject to the twelve-pax rule allow to hold more in an emergency, like when the abductees’ lives are in danger, and the UFO can ensure their safety!” Aqqar starts to think about the situations that could make an abductor hold more than 12 abductees.

  “You can lose your abduction license over a violation of the twelve-pax rule, and if you don’t, the courts could revoke the insurance policy of the UFO! I’m not a legal expert, but what you’re describing is a situation where the doctrine of necessity might be invoked” Lokath calmly answers his grad student.

  “Also, I wonder whether we could hold, say, some covert conference where representatives of a given race could negotiate with us for access to scientific data. It will save the would-be abductees lots and lots of trauma, and risks related to civil unrest!” Killanaus suggests. “These regulations, along with the need to limit the trauma we should inflict on abductee races, put a straitjacket on the quality of the research we can conduct!”

  “We’d run into a different set of problems. First, not all sentient races are sufficiently advanced to provide scientific data that are any good, and even for a race that has good data, we’d run into the problem of notations and nomenclature, or of digital data storage” Lokath explains to them.

  This discussion raises so many questions to the trio that they don’t have time to address them all in a lunch break.

  And Lokath gets in the cockpit to fly the UFO to a different region of the planet so they can continue to abduct more insectoids. But this time, rather than to inject a full dose of caffeine, for the second group, they only look at injecting two-thirds of the amount they gave to the first group. With new N95 masks and nitrile gloves, the trio set off to abduct insectoids at a pace that, if maintained, could shave several days off their initial plan to get the data collected in 18 days.