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The patient center was mostly empty, save for a few chairs and tables. Dark, dull-blue walls and a light grey floor, illuminated by a sad warmly-colored lamp in the back-right corner. Most of the room was dark, creating an atmosphere of suspense.
An impatient “tsk, tsk,” was heard from Dakota’s mouth as they sat in one of the chairs, arms resting on the wooden mahogany table. They thought about how this would play out; would their old “friend” lecture them?
Or maybe argue and yell at them just like before. After the myth began to spread around, Fauna had to drop Dakota for engaging in sketchy activities, specifically ones with using unpermitted log access. Maybe it was for the better, they thought regretfully.
The bottle held a small electronic device in their left hand, clenching it protectively. Their plan was to use this to show them evidence for everything, as Dakota remembers Fauna being highly untrustworthy of them. Evidence for their logs, the abnormal behavior in Leylani’s absence, and things they’ve noticed in Leylani’s commonly visited locations.
Hopefully not messing up everything in the process.
Very faintly, they could hear rhythmic footsteps on the cold ground outside. Dakota waited for the entry.
They heard the thick door slide open with a mechanical whirr, and they felt the stare of their old friend, Fauna, directly on their back.
Dakota turned around with the soft audible clank of the ship floating inside them.
Fauna sighed deeply and shut the door, still glaring at Dakota.
“So, we meet again. What is it this time, D.K.?” Fauna said, walking towards the patient center’s console and tapping something on it.
Dakota got mildly taken-aback by her using their old nickname like they were best friends again, but they ignored it.
They gathered the words they wanted to say first, letting Fauna talk again.
“What’s the bee in your bonnet? I’m surprised you even considered contacting me in the first place.”
Shaking their head, Dakota responded, “It doesn’t matter. I called you here because nobody else seems to want to answer me, so you’re only here as a last resort, got it?”
Fauna nodded, the tip of their feathery head folding slightly.
“It’s… a bit complicated, admittedly,” Dakota watched as Fauna paced the room slowly, observing the floor, “but I-I’m sure you can understand.”
“...Go on, you’re doing the stalling thing again.”
“Sorry- it’s…”
Fauna stopped near a wall, looking at a painting made by some abstract artist. Dakota watched confusingly and then stopped beating around the bush.
“Leylani is gone.”
The pen turned to the left a little, revealing her startled expression, and then fully turned around to look at Dakota.
“What?”
“Like, missing gone?”
Dakota nodded silently, making more subtle clinking sounds.
“You’re… that’s not right. You’re messing with me again, aren’t you? You did this last time-”
“That was in the past , Fauna. This is real… trust me.”
Fauna gained a suspicious look, despite trying to keep it toned down.
“Elaborate, if you will.” The feathered-pen inquired them.
Dakota inhaled to prepare for the speech.
“Some time ago, roughly… two days or so-”
“You hesitated to contact me.” Fauna piped up.
“That is irrelevant right now.”
Fauna bowed slightly to signal the conversation’s continuation.
“Leylani had suddenly halted her contact with me. This wouldn’t be out of the blue for her, but she has never been this silent before… at least with me.”
Fauna cleared her throat with a cough.
“So, you’re stressing out over the fact that she just ghosted you? Come on, it isn’t that bad.”
“You’re missing the point here, Fauna.”
“In case you didn’t know, me and Ley are close , something we’ve never been. So don’t willingly say things like that thinking you know any better.”
Fauna rolled her eyes.
“ Anyways? ”
Dakota sighed, cooling themself down. They didn’t want to spark anything when they were trying to get assistance from the only person of interest right now. Choosing their next words carefully, Dakota fidgeted with their hands on the table.
“‘I’ve already tried looking for her. I can’t seem to find her anywhere- not in Banddust, Maroft, nothing... Even Virtuneshun was empty… I asked some of the locals there and they replied with shaking heads..”
“Why do you think I would know where she went? I barely know you and your friends.”
“Well, friend .”
“Do not start. I believe I asked you to come help , not vent out your pettiness onto me. Don’t you care about her too?”
Fauna gave Dakota a dirty look.
“Did you see anything interesting?”
Dakota scooted back in their chair with a skid on the floor, and stood up. They walked over to the patient center’s main console, and felt around the side of it for a divet. When they came across a small groove, they implanted the small electronic square and a light yellow holographic display lit up above the raised surface.
“I see you have something to show me.”
“Shut up and just come over here.” Dakota said, becoming increasingly annoyed by Fauna’s responses.
Dakota didn’t appreciate how hard it was to talk to her, but it’s nothing new. It was one of the main reasons they had grown so distant from each other. Dakota had always seen Fauna as a rude and unlikeable person, but still stuck out for her when she needed moral support.
It looked like the only support she needed now was for her lack of empathy.
Staring at the hologram, there were several borderless images of messages sent by Leylani and Dakota via their watches. Dakota used their hand to move around some of the images in a specific order, and then waited silently.
“Let’s start here.”
“...”
“What am I supposed to be looking at?”
“The dates? Look- last time she messaged me was on the ____, it has now been four weeks and four days.”
Dakota zoomed in on the most recent image, whose date was closer to the present.
“She was talking about patient matters, but then…”
“I never heard anything from her after this point. It’s so… baffling to me- sh-she never leaves me hanging like this unless it’s something important…”
Fauna shifted in place, looking at Dakota unamused.
“Then again… if this really is bad…” They continued.
“Okay, I’ve had enough with the stalling, tell me what you want me here for. I don’t want the specifics, I want to know if this’ll be worth it for me.”
Dakota sat up straight after leaning on the patient console so focused, and glared at Fauna directly in the eyes.
“You are so selfish! This isn’t even ABOUT you, and you’re asking what’s in it for you? ”
“Clearly, you trust me enough to bring me here, so at least a small part of it must be.”
Dakota let out a grunt of frustration and put their hands down on the table, making the hologram’s display shiver for a moment.
“Fine. If you shut up about needing benefit from this whole ordeal, I’ll give you access to the logs I use to transmit… data.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“ARE YOU IN IT OR NOT?” Dakota raised their voice at her.
Fauna flicked their feathery head backwards, as if in annoyance, and rested her hands on her hips.
“No, honestly, I’m not.”
Dakota ignored this temporarily and went back to the hologram, using their hand to bring up the next thing they wanted to show her.
“These are the places I searched for Ley. I was wondering if you knew anything extra about these places that I should know about. Or if you have any other personal comments that you’d like to add.” Dakota told her, words coming through their teeth.
Fauna leaned in to the hologram and examined the pictures, ignoring Dakota’s small tangent.
“Odd…”
Dakota looked back and forth between Fauna and the images on the hologram.
“What?- What’s odd?”
“Are you not used to seeing-”
“When did Leylani last visit Virtuneshun?”
Dakota stared at Fauna, and then moved their eyes over to the hologram, pondering the question..
“...Hm. She did tell me she had gone there to visit someone, like, a couple weeks ago, but she didn’t specify who. I didn’t consider much of it beforehand, but now…”
Fauna remained silent, still watching Dakota figure out the situation.
Dakota made eye-contact again with Fauna and there was an awkward silence.
“What.” Fauna stated, breaking the silence.
“Nothing, you just… stopped talking.”
“Mm.”
“I believe you have a place to start, then. That lines up too nicely with your friend’s disappearance to not mean anything.”
“What?” They asked for a second, “Oh, the… the person they talked to? I don’t know… it’s… probably nothing much. May very well be another friend of sorts.”
Dakota chuckled, “Probably got lost or something- it’s in her nature… they may be trying to get her back here…”
Fauna rubbed the space between her eyes and sighed.
“You ask for my input yet you deny it.”
“I’m not- well, I-”
Suddenly, Fauna’s posture fixed itself to be straight and firm, and she inhaled and exhaled quickly.
“Okay, look D.K., I don’t want anything to do with this. I already almost got my ass FIRED because of you and your shenanigans with GOD knows what and those stupid logs of yours, so I’m saying this now. Respectfully, Dakota, I’m done here.”
“No, please!- Listen- ” Dakota begged, leaning over towards her direction with their hands on the patient console.
“ NO . I already didn’t want to come here in the first place, and now you apparently feel the need to drag me into this kind of crap just like you used to. Always dragging me into your personal problems that YOU know you have to fix by yourself. I tried to help, and all you’re doing is weirdly avoiding the situation yet trying to get yourself involved in it at the same time.”
“God damn, Dakota, get a grip on yourself. This is why I never wanted to be associated with you to begin with!”
Fauna turned away and walked towards the door, fists balled up out of agitation.
“FAUNA, JUST UNDERSTAND…”
She opened the door, made a stiff wave gesture, and left without saying anything else. Her movements appeared stressed and annoyed simultaneously; eager to leave and escape Dakota’s problems, like she always did when they were still friends.
Dakota was left in the room, standing alone once more. They couldn’t believe it.
They sighed with a mixture of both regret and melancholy.
“Why do I even bother…” They said quietly, tapping a few more things on the hologram to close the images.
After the hologram shut off with a final blip of light, Dakota rested their arms on the patient console’s smooth artificial surface. They closed their eyes and exhaled a sigh of defeat and hopelessness.
Fauna never was one to talk much. Even when her and Dakota were on semi-good terms, she never spoke much in general.
Dakota should’ve guessed that this would happen. They should have never even contacted Fauna in the first place- they knew that contacting them would most likely result in this. Something in them refused to believe that outcome, though.
Having accepted the situation at hand, Dakota pulled themselves up off of the console and walked around the left side, using their hand to take the small square-shaped chip out from the machine.
…At least, they expected a chip to be there.
The first time they swiped their hand over the empty hole, they thought they had missed it, but the more they scrambled to grab it the more they realized that it wasn’t there.
“What-”
They looked down at the console’s side. The chip was gone, taken out from the port and stolen.
“OH… NO-”
Dakota had a rising sense of panic set in, and they looked around the room frantically for no reason in particular other than pure alarm.
“FAUNA…” They groaned out into the room, leaning on the console.
Unfortunately, that chip was the only thing that they had loaded their evidence onto. The only copy of their groundwork for finding their lost friend, to be stolen by another, if you would even call her that. Dakota grabbed their face with their hands and mentally kicked themselves in the foot for how stupid they were for trusting her with that.
Fauna would never help them. She’d never help anybody if given the chance. She’s so selfish and full of her own job life that she doesn’t even think to step down and care for others.
And it took a while for them to finally realize that.
Dakota sat down on the floor, back to the patient console’s side. They still kept their head in their hands out of grief.
“What am I going to do…” The bottle asked themself in a monotonal, yet small sad voice…