Free short story, Intergalatic 911: See Spot? Run! (Sci-fi)

The red light was flashing again. The only way to stop it was to push it. Five minutes before my shift ends, Zed thought. Please God let it be something easy.

He pushed the button of doom. “Intergalactic nine one one, what planet are you on?”

“Yes, hello?”

“Hello, this is integalactic nine one one, what planet are you on?”

“My dog is missing.”

Zed let out a small sigh of relief. He just had to gather all the necessary info and tell the caller they can’t do anything in the nicest way possible. That last part sucked, but at least no one was hurt. “Alright, what is your name?”

“His name is Spot.”

Zed double checked his auto translator. The screen reported: STATUS: OK. Call quality: HIGH. “Your name is Spot?”

The caller chuckled. “Don’t be silly, the dog’s name is Spot.”

Maybe this was not an easy one.

“Alright, and what planet are you on?”

“He went missing two days ago and I’m not sure where he ran off. I tried looking up and down Newport Stream–that’s his favorite place to go, there’s a little park there and he just loves to play fetch in the park. There’s a giant crom tree there and Spot has claimed it multiple times over, if you catch my drift.”

Zed rubbed at his eye, massaging the beginnings of a headache. “OK, I’m going to see if I can help but I need to know your name.” The computer’s caller ID had a name and address, but both could be incorrect. Policy dictated caller confirmation.

“I’m sorry; I will just go to the park and look for him. I will be there in about an hour. Bye.” Click.

The computer was calling the number back before Zed could give the command, but it went to a generic voicemail box that “has not been setup yet.”

“Whatchya got there Zeddy boy?” Garrney’s voice sounded nearby. Zed turned an eye to the Dormadon. “Do I need to get my rear in gear on this one? Literally!”

Zed quietly chuckled. Dormadon’s were a mostly gellatinous race that used machines to navigate spaces made for humanoids. He was a veteran of the call center and the only one there Zed considered a friend. “Someone called about their missing dog then hung up. They wouldn’t give me a name or location.”

“Newport Stream?” Garrney asked. The computer had picked up on that and done an auto-search. Two planets came back, but over three dozens cities had a Newport Stream. Caller ID’s address didn’t match any of them, so either the caller was wrong or the caller ID was wrong.

“Yeah…” Zed said, his voice trailing as he looked over the data.

A mechanical arm raised a coffee cup to the Dormadon’s mouth. That was how he and Zed first became friends–bonding over great, earth-grown coffee.

“Garrney, can the computer do a complex search?”

“Such as?”

“Cross reference streams that run next to parks?”

Garrney’s mech arm delivered another sip. “Sure. Might not narrow it down that much–any given stream could run past a lot of parks.” In spite of the critique, Garrney was already plugging into the system with his data-access arm. When the results came in, he let out a “blurb-bob” which was equivalent to a human low whistle. “Lot of parks on this list, Zeddy.”

Zed checked the auto-redial, just in case. No answer. “Could it be a prank call?”

“Not sure.” Garrney said.

Zed drumed his fingers on the desk. The more time he spent on this, the less he was available for the next call, which wasn’t good. They were severely understaffed. His twenty hours of mandatory overtime attested to that.

“Your call, Zeddy.” Garrney chuckled.

The pun was lost on him. Zed continued drumming his fingers on the desk, then almost hit the next call button. Instead, he scrolled through the call transcript.

“See anything?” Garrney asked.

“No not yet. Just…” Zed stopped scrolling. “Crom trees. Any chance we can refine our search to a city with a Newport Stream where crom trees are native to the parks?”

Garrney was on it. This time, three results. “Pretty nice detective work there.”

“The caller said they would be there in about an hour. Can the local offices check on these parks then?”

Garrney examined each result. “Couple of these cities are pretty active for peace officers, they won’t like a wild lork chase.”

Zed nodded, defeated.

“But if I’m the one asking, they will go. Let me go back to my station and work it.”

There was an inside joke about Garrney “workin it” but Zed wasn’t in the mood. “Thanks Garrney,” was all he said before exhaling a nervous breath. He was new on the crew and even though Garrney was sticking his neck…err, glob out for him, he still didn’t want to mess up.

There was nothing more to do now but to hit the “ready for next call” button and ask Garrney about it later.

Zed dragged his aching rear over to the time master and the retina scanner clocked him out. The dreaded, overtime packed work week was over. “Finally,” he all but moaned. “How can I be this exhausted from sitting all day?”

“Hang on Zed,” Garrney said as he approached. “Let me scan out, then I want to talk to you.”

Zed remembered the call from earlier. “Did they find anything?”

Garrney said nothing until the retina scanner had taken his info and clocked him out. 

“You had good instincts. Peace Officers found a woman at the park at the time she said she would be there. She had an abusive boyfriend who wouldn’t let her go anywhere or call anyone without him. Her dog went missing a couple of days ago and she used that as an excuse.”

“Yes!” Zed hushed out in the call center approved quiet cheer. 

Garrney’s emitted his “first sip of coffee for the day” noise. That meant he was pretty happy. “She’s going to be OK now. And you want to know the best part?”

“They found the dog?!”

“They found the dog.”