While Kiru was following the strange pair. May had followed the young girl’s mother. The woman at first just went about her business as normal. As if she hadn’t just let a strange woman take off with her naked daughter. May took the time to observe the crowds while the woman was taking care of her shopping. Just like at the port, May noted a distinct lack of men. That seemed like an important oddity to her, and raised an intriguing question. Where are all the men?

Now that she was looking for them, she also occasionally spotted members of the same species that had taken the daughter of the woman she was following. Some of them were alone, but others were often leading a naked girl along. Some of these naked girls were children, others were older. A sight that raised more questions. Both the aliens and the girls they were taking were always naked. Yet no one in the crowd seemed to pay any real attention to this. May had her suspicions on how and why they were ignoring this. They had even ignored that rather bold kidnapping and the mother was acting normal. It was weird, but at least she hadn’t observed another one. Just evidence that more may be happening elsewhere.

She stuck to following the woman though, seeing as Kiru was already following one of these kidnapping aliens. May had a feeling that something interesting would happen. A feeling that was rewarded when the woman finally went home. May cloaked herself when the opportunity presented itself and followed her inside.

She started by putting her shopping away, and then she suddenly pulled a few large boxes out, and a pen. She set them up in the main room and labeled them. One box was labeled for donation, the second for sale, and the third for storage. May then watched the woman head to a bedroom. With a mere glance, she could tell it was her daughter's bedroom. The woman headed straight for the closet and began pulling out the clothes. Most of them were promptly dumped in the for sale box, but some of the clothes were dumped in the donation box.

Once the closet was empty, she went for the dressers. Emptying them out into the boxes. None of the clothing went into the storage box. It was all either the for sale box or the donation box. Finally, the woman pulled her daughter's earlier outfit out of her handbag and dumped the entire outfit into the for sale box.

May watched the whole thing, and found it odd. It seemed she had found an answer to one question. Why did the alien have the mother take the outfit? It seemed that the mother was disposing of anything the alien didn’t want. She was also doing the at-home clean-up.

With clothes out of the way, the mother moved on to bedding, dumping that into the storage box. Followed by toys, all of which ended up in the donation box. Then she started collecting things that seemed personal. Photos, art projects, and nicknacks all of which were promptly packed into the storage box. It seemed to May that the woman wasn’t expecting her daughter to come back. At least not anytime soon.

When she was done, the woman headed to the house comm terminal and contacted someone. May found this particularly interesting, as the figure that appeared on the comm screen belonged to one of those suspicious naked aliens. 

The woman spoke first saying, “I’ve finished packing up my daughter’s stuff. The lady said to contact you when I was done.”

The woman glanced at something, and then said, “Good. Someone will be by shortly to collect it. Wait by the door until they arrive, and leave it open.”

The woman nodded, ended the call, and headed for the door. May glanced at the comm panel and noted that she had also sent her address and a fair amount of personal information to the alien. It had been included in a text packet sent with the opening of the call. She then glanced at the front door. The woman was already standing by the door, and she had it wide open.

Nothing else seemed to be happening, but May decided to stick around. She wanted to see what would happen when this person they were sending came by to collect. Would it be one of the aliens or someone else?

The answer to the question was one she didn’t have to wait too long for. A large truck landed about half an hour after the woman had contacted the alien. A young Neku female came out of the vehicle, entirely naked. Well, save for a single belt with a small pouch on it. Along with a few tools. She sauntered up to the door, and glanced at the mother. Then she looked at the boxes. “That the stuff?”

The mother nodded. And the girl replied, “Alright then I’ll load it up, stay right here until I am done. We will send you the location for the storage in a few days, along with the service bill.”

The girl walked up to the storage box first, and sealed it. She added a label to it and then activated its antigrav. It was the first item taken out the door, and the mother stood by the door like she was told. May read the label as the girl pushed it past her cloaked form. It contained all the personal information she had seen sent, and included instructions.

The donation box was next, she simply sealed it. No label was added to it. The for-sale box was last. The girl first looked through its contents before neatly folding them back in. She was remarkably quick about it. Then she sealed it, and added a label. Before taking it back to the truck. As she passed the mother she said, “we’ll contact you when we finish selling this stuff for you.”

The woman nodded. While the girl just loaded it onto the truck. When she was done, she came back to the door. “That is everything right?”

The woman nodded again, and the girl happily replied, “The Iniri thank you for your cooperation in this matter, and ask that you don’t think of your daughter until we tell you otherwise. She will be fine in our care. You may go back to your normal life, and forget this happened.”

May slipped out the door as the woman said, “I’ll do just that.” She slipped into the house, and it was the naked Neku woman who closed the door. Before heading over to the truck. May watched her climb into the cockpit, and the vehicle lifted off. She had considered following her or joining her in the cabin. Instead, she had merely tagged the vehicle and the girl with cloaked tags. This was a lead they could follow up on later. May went her own way. She needed to rendezvous with Qei now. She was close to a point of interest though, so she figured she would scout that first, and then meet Qei at whatever lodgings she had arranged.

With those words, the alien turned back and led the girl down the hall. Kiru let out a breath. It seemed the alien was somehow aware of her, but couldn’t actually find her. With a thought as Kiru followed down the hall, she opened a comm channel with the ship.

A holographic image of Megumi was projected in the upper right corner of her hud, a window expanding to cover the graphic that detailed her defensive armament. Normally it would either cover her sensor display in the lower left corner or take up her full vision, but she had overridden the default. She was using the sensor display at the moment, but not her weapons. If she needed to use a weapon that would mean she had messed up.

Megumi listened to her quick report. She frowned, and replied, “It is possible that she is sensing you. Your personal cloak protects you from all normal senses, but if she has psionic ability she may have psionic senses that are picking you up.” 

“Can something be done to hide me from those? Preferably right now?” she asked while following the alien up a floor.

Megumi sighed, “Without a specimen, not really. I would need to know exactly what psionic senses they have, and their frequency range in order to produce a proper psionic shield for you. Your cloak and implants already include general psionic protection. I could attempt to adjust them but that is a risky proposition.”

Kiru replied, “I see. I’ll just deal with it as is then.” She had understood the subtext there. The general protection was likely the reason why the alien hadn’t found her already. It knew she was here, but couldn’t find her. If the shielding was adjusted, however, it might help or if Megumi’s guess was wrong she might end up more visible to the alien's psychic senses.

She closed the channel just as the alien opened a door. It revealed a small room with a bed, a bookcase, and a small table with a pair of chairs. The alien ushered the young girl into the room with a smile on her face. “Wait here. There is a box of kid toys under the bed in case you get bored. Someone will come by to get you when we are ready for you.”

This seemed interesting to Kiru. She watched as the girl headed straight for the bed, and pulled out two boxes. A large box clearly labeled in large block lettering ‘kid toys’ the other smaller box was labeled in same block lettering ‘adult toys’

Naturally, the girl opened the small box first. As she pulled out a modestly sized egg-shaped device with a frown the alien giggled. “Try the other box. I think those toys will be more to your liking.”

The girl dropped the egg, closed the box, and went right for the other box. Kiru watched her rifle through the box. Her expression was one of joy. The alien stood at the door a moment longer watching her and then closed the door. Kiru didn’t see what toy she ultimately picked. The alien walked down the corridor seeming rather pleased. Kiru glanced at the door, and then followed the alien.

The alien headed straight to a strange room. It was dominated by a strange chair in the middle of the room. Another young girl was currently strapped into the chair. Various sensors were hooked up to her body. She was surrounded by several other aliens. One of them was inserting a new probe into her, while another had its tentacles wrapped around her head.

Kiru had no idea what she was seeing. The alien spoke, “I found another young one with potential. I just left her in room 237. How are things going with this one?”

The one with her tentacles wrapped around the girl said, “She is responding well. We should be done in a few minutes. We can look at your catch then.”

This sounded very interesting. It seemed she had found something of real interest alright. She still had many questions, and this was opening new ones as well. Kiru moved around the room, careful to keep her distance from the aliens while observing what they were doing. She didn’t know what they were doing to the girl, but she didn’t think it was good.

A few moments later they seemed to finish, and a couple of them began to unhook the sensors. While a third removed the probes they had inserted. Some of which were rather strange. Kiru didn’t know what to make of what she was seeing, but perhaps Megumi would.

Once all the devices had been removed from the girl’s naked body, the aliens released the restraints, and the alien wrapping her head let go of her. The girl slipped out of the chair, and stretched a bit. Then one of the aliens said, “Go to your assigned room. One of us will visit you later for some tests.”

The girl nodded and complied. Slipping out of the room. Kiru had no doubt that she was going to do exactly what she was told. As the aliens seemed confident that she would as well, and from what she had seen they had every reason to. As the door closed behind the girl, the first alien that Kiru had followed swept the room with her gaze again. That odd expression on her face again. One of the others gave her a look, and she looked back. Kiru had a strange feeling that they were communicating.

The first alien frowned, sighed and then aloud commented, “I think this is stupid, but is anyone there?”

Kiru stayed silent. That was an obvious baiting, and she wasn’t going to reply. There was no reason to speak. She had questions that she would love to ask them, but now wasn’t the time. In fact she was burning to act on what she was seeing, but held herself back. Again she knew that it was not yet time to act. They needed to know more before they made their move. Not to mention she had every confidence that Megumi could undo whatever it is they were doing to these girls. 

After a moment the first aloud, said, “I told you it was stupid.”

The one she directed the statement shouted back, “Well I don’t believe anyone is in the room in the first place. I sure don’t sense anyone. Do you three?”

The other three shook their heads. Kiru found this little conversation quite illuminating. It seemed the general shielding was working quite well. Perhaps the first one was just more powerful than the others and could therefore sense her, whereas for the rest, she was completely invisible. She glanced at the door. It seemed she had learned enough already, but at the moment she couldn’t leave. Kiru found a clear spot in the corner and watched the aliens argue. It was certainly entertaining. Especially when objects started floating around the room. It seemed Megumi was right, these aliens were psionically gifted. Now she just wondered if they would answer any of her other questions. Like what exactly they were taking these girls for. The first alien had mentioned something about potential but potential for what was the question. It seemed to factor into why they took her, but without knowing more she couldn’t guess.