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least one week’s worth of supplies still on board. As their search continued over the next few days, two of the investigative team had mysteriously disappeared. Shortly afterward, all contact with the team had been lost. CSETI command and control had not ruled out the possibility of radio malfunction, but when the ship did not return as scheduled it was realized that something was dreadfully amiss. At the present time the CSETI was licking its wounds. All information regarding the failed mission was being carefully scrutinized and there were no plans to send out another team until their safe return could be ensured. What had originally begun as a routine find-and-rescue assignment was developing into something far more sinister.
    Mannheim grasped the arms of his chair and eased himself back into it. He brought his hands together in front of him and steepled his fingers, tapping them together thoughtfully. Two ships had landed on this remote, uncharted planet and not one member of either crew had returned. An idea began to take form in his mind and with it came a grin that spread across his face.
     
    *    *    *    *    *
     
    He was barely conscious, but conscious enough to know that his neck hurt like hell. Wyatt stretched and tried to rub away the stiffness. He didn’t need to open his eyes to realize he was still slumped in the armchair he had fallen asleep in last night. He opened one eye with a grimace and brought up his arm to check the time on his watch. 8:03 AM. For a split second the time didn’t really register, either because he hadn’t really taken it on board or because he didn’t want to believe it was true. But then again, watches didn’t lie. “Aaah shit!” in a second he was up and bolting for the shower.
    Twenty minutes later Wyatt was speeding up the ramp out of the underground car park. He screeched to a halt before joining the traffic on the road which was moving at a much more sedate pace.
    He was grateful that this was the last day of his shift. He was exhausted. The nightmare and thoughts of Tanya seemed to be conspiring to deprive him of as much sleep as possible lately. He yawned, absently rubbing one eye while keeping the other firmly fixed on the taillights of the vehicle in front of him. The traffic was getting unbelievable these days. He recalled the politicians from the television the night before. There was indeed an overcrowding problem.
    Driving to work always seemed the attractive option, a novelty, but it infrequently was. Fortunately there was an alternative. Chicago city congress had at least had one good idea in recent years.
    The skytrack had been completed over eight years ago. It took the form of a chain-driven monorail suspended some forty feet above the road and was a compromise between road vehicles and the hover vehicles.
    Hover vehicles were developed three decades ago and had become incredibly popular in a short space of time. They provided a much-needed escape from land-bound transport and cut traveling times in half. However, aerial traffic could not be controlled by the tried and tested methods that worked on the ground, and as the skies became more densely populated with the new vehicles, accidents became more common. The problem with aerial collisions though, was that the drivers were not the only victims of the accident. Debris had to fall somewhere and pedestrians were, more often than not, seriously injured or killed by these mishaps. The problem became so bad that the city congress was beseeched to provide an alternative. Hover vehicles could not be banned outright and the roads would simply not withstand the increase in the volume of traffic should hover vehicles be restricted to land use only. The skytrack scheme was proposed and accepted. With slight modification, hover vehicles could utilize the skytrack.
    Wyatt let his head fall back against the headrest. The traffic was moving intolerably slowly. He sighed heavily.
    “Would you like me to prepare