10 Faint Light of Hope

'Gone. All gone.' Robin wept.

'Kid, calm down. It's not over yet, not until you have found them. Be strong, boy.' Kael tried to console Robin.

'How else am I supposed to find them? I don't have the Tracker. I don't know where they are. I don't even know what has happened to them.'

'Kid, just try to find something. There has to be something left behind. Look for it.' Kael assured.

Robin searched again. He picked up every twig he could see in the area, and searched between the stains and marks on the trees. He was sad and angry at the same time. He failed to save his friend, and now he failed to find his father. What could be worse? He had no more interest to search for clues. Just as he was about to give up, he found a round, black object, with the Hyrax logo. Robin didn't recognize what it was, so he called Kael and described the object.

'An audio recorder! Should be Alex's. Play it!' Kael exclaimed.

Robin switched it on. A deep, female voice answered.

'Hi Alex, what can I do for you? Your last recording was ten hours ago.'

'Play my last recording!' Robin interjected.

'Playing your last recording.' The voice replied.

A fuzzy noise was heard. Nothing else was audible. Then, a deep, growling voice said 'Help!'. Robin recognized that it was his father's voice. 'Help! They found us! They found us!' and again only fuzzy noise was heard. Sharp noises were heard in the background, akin to shots of laser beams that Robin has heard in the labs before. The recording stopped abruptly.

Robin felt hopeless. Who found them? Who else could be there? Was it related to those eyes he saw earlier? Did the crew survive? Numerous questions hounded Robin's mind. He sat down near a tree, feeling lost. He switched off his Commune after allowing Kael to listen to the recording. There was nothing else the poor boy could do. He closed his eyes, pondering all the previous events, beginning from the lab. He felt something sitting on his nose. It was a moth, he chased it away and noticed a paper nearby. The paper was big and dirty. There were sketches and handwritten notes on the paper. Robin recognized his father's scribbles. He realized what the paper was conveying. It was a map.

End of Project Hyrax: Beyond Time. PART 2 is COMING SOON!!