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spacedogfromspaceThe Vanishing
Chapter 5: Something to Hide
Nyota goes to see her friend Hikaru Sulu, and learns something about Christine.
Back at the lodge, Nyota had her laptop open and was tapping through various web pages. She wasn't sure what she was looking for, exactly. But she decided to put Jim's name into her browser and see what came up. After wading through news articles and missing persons reports, she came across his social media page and decided to take a look. She didn't think it would provide anything useful, but after her conversation with Christine she found herself curious as to what her friend had been up to over the past few years.
Jim had a lot of friends, or at least he did on social media. She looked through his pictures, saddening at just how many there were since she last appeared in one of them. Feeling that twinge of guilt return to her, she continued on reading through posts and comments. She found a recent one, from a couple weeks before he disappeared, announcing his plan to hike the Ostrander Lake trail. Nyota opened the comment thread, hoping someone would have asked some questions and a more detailed sketch of his plans would be revealed, possibly handing her a much needed clue. Of course, there was nothing of the sort, and she knew if there had been, the authorities would have found it already. But there was one comment that piqued her interest.
Drop into the ranger station to say hi! (and bring me a coffee, haha)
The commenter was Hikaru Sulu. Nyota knew Hikaru. He was one of her friends from University also, yet another whom she had fallen out of touch with. Feeling as if something delicate just dropped into her hands, she clicked on his name, opening his profile. Luckily for her, he had shared details about his current occupation. He worked for the Parks Service. In Yosemite National Park.
"Holy shit," Nyota whispered. She had a way in.
As she drove Janice's pickup to the ranger station, it occurred to her that she probably should have reached out to Hikaru instead of dropping in on him unannounced. She wasn't even sure if he would be at the station. He could be on a three month sabbatical for all she knew. Putting the truck in park and twisting the keys in the ignition, the truck sputtered into silence. Nyota flung the door open and stepped out before she could change her mind and drive away again.
She had been to this building before, many, many times. She winced at the memory of all the times she had stopped by to request information, and the times towards the end where she started to lose her cool and started throwing all sorts of accusations at the poor clerks who were just doing what their bosses told them to. Thinking back, she was almost certain that Hikaru hadn't been working in the park at the time. He must have started the job recently, maybe a few months ago.
"Hello, can I help— Oh," the clerk had started speaking before getting a look who had just opened the door, and had stopped when she recognized Nyota. Nyota winced as she recognized the clerk as one of the ones she had shouted undue abuse at until she was hauled out of the station by two parks staff and dumped on her ass in the gravel parking lot.
With an apologetic grimace, Nyota lifted her hand to give a small wave, her elbows pulled inwards to make herself feel smaller. What she wouldn't give to disappear in the moment. But she had work to do. "Hi," she said awkwardly. "I'm looking for someone who works for the Parks Service. His name is Hikaru Sulu. Do you know him?"
She was met with suspicious scrutiny for a moment, and Nyota tried her best smile to try and win the woman over. Unfortunately, she realized it probably looked more like a grimace. With a deep sigh, the woman turned to her computer. "Yes, let me see where he is right now," she said, sounding none too pleased about it.
"Thank you so much," Nyota said, shoulders relaxing. She waited patiently, trying not to fidget. She was determined to be on her best behaviour.
Not looking up from the screen, the woman told her where she could find Hikaru, and gave half-hearted directions when Nyota asked where the arbory lab was. After a few sincere thank yous, Nyota found herself back in Janice's truck, starting up the ignition and heading off to the next location on her little scavenger hunt.
There was a sign with the name of the lab on it at a turn off. The paved road didn't continue down it, and the road looked fairly unmaintenanced— the gravel long since ground down into nothing but hard packed dirt. There was a gate only a few meters from the turn off, requiring a magnetic badge to go any further.
'Authorized Personnel Only Beyond This Point,' another sign warned. Nyota pulled to the side of the road, parking the truck far enough to the right that vehicles could pass if they came along. She made sure to lock the truck when she got out, ducked under the barrier, and continued walking down the service road towards the lab.
As the barrier on the road might have suggested, the lab was not open to the public. It had no public entrance, or any doors that didn't require a fob to open. After passing through a sparsely populated parking lot that had parked in it a couple of service trucks and a personal car, she walked along the building in search of a way in.
Luckily, she found something. The staff entrance— the only entrance —had a doorbell, presumably in the case that one of the employees forgot their fob. She pressed it, unable to hear it ring through the heavy door. She waited a moment, and was about to try the bell again when the door opened.
He didn't look the same as he did back in the day, but she recognized him immediately. Hikaru stood in the doorway, appraising her with confusion.
"Hi," Nyota said awkwardly, shooting him a nervous smile.
"Sorry," he said. "But this building is off limits to the public."
"I know," Nyota said, rubbing the back of her neck as the embarrassment crept up on her. She opened her mouth to explain herself, but was interrupted by a flicker of recognition crossing Hikaru's face.
"Wait.... Nyota?" He asked, gaping at her in disbelief.
She smiled, relieved. "The one and only," she said.
"What are you doing way out here?" He asked, but not in an unfriendly way.
"Looking for you, actually," she said. "I heard you were working here. Thought that since I was in the area I'd look you up. Don't suppose you have time for a chat?"
Hikaru paused, then pushed the door open wider, standing aside to let her in. "We can talk in the break room. But if anyone asks, I didn't let you in here."
"You bet."
Hikaru lead Nyota down a sparse concrete hallway. Since it wasn't a building ever meant to be seen by the public, apparently it was okay for the interior to be as depressing as humanly possible. She caught glimpses of the insides of some of the labs through the small windows in the doors, seeing a lot of grow lights and shelves of potted seedlings. Hikaru steered her into a break room that was even more depressing than the hallway. The only pop of colour was a crookedly mounted poster featuring an orange cartoon cat with a bubble around its head like an astronaut's helmet, the inspirational text reading 'keep calm.'
"So," Hikaru said, gesturing to a chair. She sat down and waited as he went to the sink, filling two glasses with tap water before sitting across the small table from her, pushing one of the glasses in her direction. "I'd offer you coffee, but you'd think I was trying to poison you."
Nyota smiled. "How have you been?" She asked. "I haven't seen you since graduation."
Hikaru smiled. "Well, I'm married with a kid and have a fancy new job that somehow lets me work with trees and lets me a pilot a search and rescue helicopter," he said. "What have you been doing since graduation?"
Nyota smiled weakly. "That's actually what I'm here to talk to you about."
He raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
Unsure of where to start, Nyota fiddled with her hair, pushing her braids over her shoulder. "I've been spending a lot of time looking for missing people out here the last few years," she began.
Hikaru sat back in his chair, eyes dropping to the table. "You're here about Jim, then?"
Nyota nodded. "This time, yes," she said. "But you're probably aware that he's not the first one. Do you find it strange that so many people disappear out here and nobody ever finds any clues as to what happened to them? I mean, one or two vanishing without a trace in such a big park is one thing, but there are... a lot. No trace."
Hikaru nodded. "I've heard of them, yes," he said. "It's looking like Jim is joining the statistics."
Nyota's mouth tightened into a thin line. "Looks like it," she agreed. "But it all seems a little bit off. I've been involved in a lot of searches, and I've done a lot of my own research and investigating, and in all of these cases it seems that somebody is withholding information from me— and the rest of the public."
Hikaru met her eyes. "What are you saying?"
Nyota took a breath. "I'm saying that I think there's something bigger going on here, and I think that the Parks Service is covering it up."
He stared at her in silence for a long moment. "Okay," he said, and Nyota knew from that one word that he wasn't convinced. "Alright. So let's say something weird is going on and the Parks Service doesn't want anyone to know about it— why would you be coming to me with this?"
Nyota gulped. This was exactly what she feared would happen - Hikaru thought she'd lost her marbles. "Because you work with the Parks Service and maybe you can find something out that I just don't have the resources to find myself," she explained.
Hikaru's gaze softened. "I hate to disappoint you, but I don't have much in the way of security clearance," he said.
"I know," she said hurriedly. "I just need the missing persons files. Their version, not the ones they gave me."
He gave her a look that she knew all too well— one appraising her for mental instability. "Are you... investigating this alone?"
"No," Nyota said. "No, Janice from White Wolf Lodge is helping me, and a park ranger, too."
Hikaru frowned at this. "If you're working with a park ranger why don't you get them to get the reports for you?"
"Because she lives out in the woods and doesn't have access to the database out there," Nyota said.
"Lives out in the woods?" Hikaru asked. "What do you mean?"
"She has a shelter way off the trail," Nyota explained. "She stays out there full time, watching for poaching activity. She's been out there a long time. Her name's Christine."
Hikaru shook his head. "I'm pretty new here, but I'm pretty sure the park doesn't have any employees living out in the wilderness full time."
"But..."
"Hold on," he interrupted. "Stay here, I'll go see if I can find her in the staff directory. What's her last name?"
"Oh," Nyota blinked. "I don't know."
"Well, I'll see if I can narrow it down. Wait here."
He got up and left the break room, letting the door swing shut on its own. Alone in the room, Nyota was suddenly acutely aware of all the small sounds around her. The hum of the old refrigerator in the corner. The gurgle of the pipes under the sink. The buzz of the overhead lights. The steady ticking of the clock on the wall, that she hadn't realized made any sound before, but was deafening in the face of her doubts. She was alone with the possibility that Hikaru wouldn't find Christine in the employee database. What would that mean for her? Her eyes turned to the poster on the wall, the adorable space cat staring back at her.
Keep calm.
"Easier said than done," Nyota grumbled to the poster. Suddenly, the break room door opened and Hikaru stepped back in. The deafening sounds of the fridge and clock and lights and sink dropped away as if they had never been there in the first place.
Hikaru sat back down in his seat. His face didn't betray what he had discovered. Instead, he asked, "tell me about your friend again. You're sure her name is Christine, and not something similar? What did she tell you she did, exactly? What does she look like?"
Nyota blinked, her anxiety about what Hikaru had discovered taking the back-burner as the bombardment of questions distracted her. "Her name is Christine. I'm sure of it. That's what she told me her name was," she said, seeds of doubt starting the leach into her. "Unless that's not her real name. Or not her recorded name."
Hikaru nodded. "There isn't anyone named Christine employed by the Parks Service in Yosemite," he said. "But it's not uncommon for people to use a different name than the one they have to put on legal documents. She didn't give you another name?"
Nyota shook her head. She would have remembered that. "She told me she works for the Parks Service, and that she's stationed out there to watch for any sign of poaching." She had already told him that, but he had asked, so she repeated it. Maybe he misunderstood her the first time.
"How long did she say she had been stationed out there?" He asked. "A week, two weeks?"
"She didn't say, exactly," Nyota said. "But the way she talked about it, it sounded like she was out there year-round. So at least since winter."
Hikaru's mouth formed a tight line. Nyota knew he had made up his mind about Christine, but repeated his last question anyways, as if that could have turned the tides. "What does she look like?"
"White lady, thin. She looks pretty distinct, actually. Her hair is white and she has yellow eyes. And I mean yellow yellow," she said.
"White hair and yellow eyes," Hikaru mused under his breath. He let out a bemused huff. "Sounds almost like..." He shook his head, and met Nyota's eyes. "Look, Nyota. I don't know who you met out there. But she isn't Park staff, and she isn't out there surveilling for poachers."
Nyota had seen this coming, but hearing him say it definitively made her chest tighten as all hope of Christine actually being who she said she was vanished. "Then... Who is she?" She asked weakly.
Shaking his head sympathetically, Hikaru said, "I don't know. She could be anyone. I don't know what anyone would be doing living out in the wilderness, off the radar like that. Unless she was running from something, or had something to hide."
Something to hide.
Nyota's jaw clenched tight as she stood up, eyes hardening. "Right. Something to hide," she repeated through her gritted teeth. She turned and strode out of the break room, and back the way they came, pushing the exit open with an unnecessary force.
"Nyota, wait," Hikaru called, chasing after her as she stormed down the service road back to the gate where she left Janice's truck. "Don't go out there and confront her on your own, you don't know who she is. She could be dangerous." But his words fell on deaf ears as she got into the truck, throwing it into a speedy reverse as soon as the engine roared to life. She sped down the highway to the Ostrander Lake trail-head, her entire being ablaze.
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