Amateur Author

With a characteristic sharp pinging sound, the speed lift notified all who where interested of its arrival. The men and women standing in front of the doors were very interested indeed. They had been send to this location to intercept a man and a woman, the woman matching the description they had been given at the start of their mission. Within the next few seconds, they would secure the wanted woman well, and life aboard the station could be returned to normal.

As the doors opened, they aimed and readied their pulse blasters, each activating with a hum. They started shouting orders to surrender… to an empty elevator.

After overcoming his surprise, the sergeant in charge of the soldiers got on the radio with his superior officers. ‘Sir, the lift is empty!’ he stated firmly. ‘I repeat, the lift is empty.’

‘What? That’s impossible!’ the man at the other end of the line hollerd – so loud that it hurt the sergeants ears. ‘Have you checked thoroughly?’

‘The lift is not that big sir, we can pretty much see all of it,’ the sergeant replied dryly but without the intent of sarcasm.

‘Don’t get cocky with me, soldier! Have you checked the top of the lift?’

‘But sir, that’s a speed lift! If they would have hid on top of the thing, they would have been killed. And they surely didn’t have time to hide there between when it stopped and the opening of the doors.’

‘Check anyway,’ the superior officer ordered. ‘It didn’t stop along the way, so they must be in or on it somewhere. They have to be.’ A whiff of desperation emanated from the crackling voice.

‘Yes, sir!’ the sergeant stated firmly, and ordered his men to check the top of the elevator.

Several had pointed their weapons at a maintenance hatch in the ceiling, a woman had holstered her weapon and got ready to open it. She pressed the button and it slit open. Four guns immediately pointed at the opening. They saw nothing. The soldiers jumped into the lift, took up different positions and looked at the gap in the ceiling from different angles. Still nothing.

The sergeant nodded at the woman and she took out her handgun. Without hesitation, she positioned herself underneath the hatch. Another soldier quickly put a small set of steps in front of her feet. With her gun drawn, she walked up the steps until she could pop her head and arms through the hatch and looked in all directions, with both her eyes and her gun. She glared around the vast shaft above her, using the torch attached to the barrel of her weapon to light her view. She then stepped down. ‘Clear, sir!’ she hollered. She had seen nothing. The people they were looking for seemed to have disappeared into thin air.