Title: Lifelines
Chapter: 3
Author: squeezynz@free.net.nz
Universe: Land of the Giants
Rating: PG, adventure
Archive: Let me know where, please.
Spoilers: not alot, mostly for Golden Cage
Feedback: the stuff of legend and life
Disclaimer: promise to put them back when I'm finished playing.

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Professor Tan Rennet paced his tent in frustration. He and his wife Caron had been tracking the weak signal from Marna for nearly a week. They had expected to find Marna and the camp of the Little People within the first few days. The realisation that they had managed to escape, carrying Marna off with them had been a blow to their well-laid plans. It had meant a complete rethink and a new plan. Tan still hoped to capture the entire group, they would need as many as possible to have a hope of a successful result. Too few would make all their effort pointless. Capturing all seven, eight including Marna, would make the project the most ambitious ever attempted.

His wife had put the idea forward, she had been there when he and his assistant, Hoge, had found the Waylens' spaceship, nearly 18 years ago. The occupants, Charles Waylen, his wife Lauren and daughter Marna had been grateful at first. Charles had shared a great deal of his knowledge with Tan, giving the Professor a glimpse of how fantastic the Little Peoples planet really was. Tan longed to have the technology these people took for granted. Caron had taken care of the wife, Lauren and the beautiful little girl, becoming very upset when it became clear the injuries sustained in the crash would soon cause Lauren's death. Caron had helped Charles and Marna nurse Lauren, and then joined them in grieving when Lauren died. Charles was never the same after that, he became withdrawn and morose, even the demands of his little daughter didn't help him. Eventually he passed away too, leaving a distraught child for Tan and Caron to console. Caron suggested he had died from a broken heart but Tan told her not to be so illogical. They created a miniature home for Marna, embracing her as their own. Nothing was too good for her and they did everything in their power to give Marna whatever she needed or wanted.

As Marna grew and became a beautiful young woman, Caron began to fret about getting Marna some companions of her own size and species. Marna wasn't unhappy with her situation but Caron could see problems as Marna got older and began to question her isolation. Keeping Marna largely uninformed about the planet she was on and the circumstances of her arrival kept Marna happy in her house and garden, never wondering or worrying about the more bizarre aspects of her situation. It was only the discovery, from information in various news reports and incidents, of a large group of Little People camped somewhere in the forest that planted the idea of luring them back to Marna's compound. Keeping them as company for her, and as specimens for the Professor to use to advance his knowledge. Caron had suggested using Marna as bait, as many of the news reports had said there were several male earthlings. Tan had agreed that the bait needed to be irresistible, and no-one was more suitable than Marna for that purpose. It had worked far better than anyone could have expected. Marna had returned with a prime specimen in the earth man Marna called Mark. It had all appeared to have gone brilliantly and they expected to have the entire group before the day was out. They hadn't reckoned on the paranoia of the earth people, and their ingenuity once they had realised the 'gift' was a tracking device. Hoge and one of the lab assistants had gone to track the Little People and found themselves chasing a wild turkey instead. Caron had still had hopes that the man called Mark would return for the beautiful Marna. Tan had his doubts which were borne out when weeks passed, then months and no signs of the Earth people were seen again.

It had been hard on Caron to watch Marna weep for the loss of her first love. As time moved on Marna changed, she no longer mooned over the loss of Mark, rather she started to make suggestions about another attempt at capturing the group. Tan discussed at length with his wife and their colleagues, various ideas and strategies, but it was finally decided that a staged disaster, with Marna acting the innocent cast out of paradise would work the best. It had all gone off flawlessly, Marna had met up with the Little People, and been accepted into their group. Then, just as Professor Tan and Hoge had been about to close the trap the whole manhunt through the forest had happened, and the Little People had escaped not only the SID and police, but them as well, taking Marna with them to who knew where. Only the steady blip of the tracking device gave them any hope of bringing any success out of the fiasco.

Now here they were, camped in a forest in a part of the planet none of them had visited before, trying to find a tiny ship in an enormous park, with only the vaguest idea where to start looking. Marna's tracking signal had finally faded out two days ago. The battery had lasted longer than they had expected, but it hadn't been designed to last very long in the first place. Now they only had a general area in which to look, and very small specimens to try and trap.

Hoge was out there now, scouting the immediate area, trying to find any clues as to whether the Little People were anywhere close. A useless venture to Tan's way of thinking. The Little People's ship could have flown anywhere, it was only with luck that the signal had pointed them to this location, they had barely started triangulating when the signal stopped. Now they had to hope that Marna would find a way of leaving a message or contacting them.

Caron pushed past the canvass at the entrance to the tent, watching silently as her brilliant husband paced back and forth in the confined area between the beds. She was as keen as anyone to get Marna back to them. Caron fretted about what might be happening, and how Marna was coping with the strangers she had to live with now. Caron knew that Marna harboured a deep resentment against the Earth People for not coming and living with her. She also knew that Marna had never let go of her desire to have Mark by her side forever. She could only hope that Marna kept her head and didn't let on about their plans to capture and keep them all. The new compound they had built in expectation of the new arrivals was nearly completed. Tan had even obtained permission from the Supreme Council to conduct his experiments on the proviso that the Little People would never be allowed to leave the environs of Tan's laboratory or the secure compound. Tan had happily agreed, thinking of all the new discoveries they would make from the knowledge in the Earth men's heads. Co-operation wouldn't be a problem, it was clear the men from Earth valued their women highly and wouldn't want to see anything happen to them, what more leverage would they need. Capturing a working Earth made ship would just add to their prestige, the SID particularly wanting to get their hands on the technology, happy to let the Scientist do with the Little People what they wanted. Caron could see a glittering future for her husband, it just all depended on the success of current mission.

" Tan, stop pacing, come and help me set up for lunch. Hoge will be back soon. Maybe he'll have some news for us."

" We're so close, Caron, so close. If only that transmitter had lasted a bit longer, we could have them and be on our way back to the lab by now." Tan smacked his fist into his other hand in frustration at the delay.

" Well shouting about it won't make it happen any sooner, so come outside and help me instead." Caron turned and passed through the entrance, Tan following her, muttering as he went.

They had just sat down to eat when Hoge appeared in the clearing.

" What news, any sign of the Earth ship ?" Tan asked eagerly.

" Nothing yet, I had a chat with a family that were camping about a mile from here. They had a couple of kids and I was able to chat at length with them, but they didn't have any sightings to report."

" I hope you didn't let on what we were here for ?" said Caron, alarmed.

" Of course not, what do you take me for. I was very discreet, they didn't learn anything from me." Hoge replied, a sneer curling his lip.

Caron looked away, she had never been entirely comfortable with Hoge, despite his brilliance with her husband and his willingness to help with their hunt for the Earth people. There was something cruel about him that had kept Caron from allowing Hoge to have anything to do with Marna's upkeep.

Hoge sat down heavily at the table and started to pile food onto a plate, Caron looked on as her husband and Hoge started eating and discussing their plan of action for the afternoon.

It was decided to spend the afternoon setting out box traps along the edge of the forest. They had their own design of traps, not the clunky wooded enclosed boxes, but a lighter wire mesh design that was easier to conceal. Also they would seed the main animal trails with net traps and trip wires connected to alarms to try and capture at least one, there-bye ultimately capturing the whole group. Obviously there would be some animals trapped as well, but overall they expected to at least have some limited success. If nothing turned up over the next couple of days they would strike camp and try another section of the forest, repeating the same process until they had covered the entire parkland. Hoge had suggested putting something in the local water holes to knock the little people out if they drank it, but Tan thought that idea too dangerous for his potential specimens. They might be eaten by animals if not found in time, or fall in the water and drown. Caron sighed with relief when the idea wasn't taken up, it was typical of Hoge's cruel nature to want the Earth People helpless and vulnerable.

At the end of the day they had completed setting the traps and mapping their locations. Back at the tent Tan was checking the signals that illuminated the switches on the control panel set up on the back of the truck. They had brought along the latest electronic equipment to monitor their traps, rather than relying on random checking and luck. The amount of money they and their backers had invested in the project had allowed them to obtain cutting edge equipment, eliminating the need for a large staff of helpers to regularly check the large number of traps. It only needed one of them to monitor the pattern of lights and they could reach the trap that had been sprung soon after the alarm showed up. The scientists only problem was filling the hours of tedium that inevitably occurred when waiting for a trap to do its job.

They had to go through the same process of relocating and setting the traps three times over a period of two weeks before they had any success. They had trapped various species of the local small animal population but until that day they had seen no evidence that Little People were anywhere within a hundred miles of that particular forest. Hoge was getting impatient, wanting to abandon the project and get on with a more successful venture. Tan and Caron wanted to persist, holding out the hope that Marna would find a way to contact them and bring success to her Giant friends. They were arguing as usual after breakfast, deciding how to spend the day when the first alarm of the day went off. Hoge jumped on the back of the truck, noting which trap had been sprung and marking it on his map.

" It's number seven one four...right by a waterhole, I'll go and check it out." Hoge gathered his capture equipment, map and backpack as Tan and Caron stood at the back of the truck. " It's one of the furthest ones we set, it'll take me about an hour to get there, so don't expect me back before lunch." Hoge hefted the pack and turned to leave.

" Do you have your radio ?" Tan asked.

" Yeah...I'll let you know what I find." Hoge tramped off, quickly disappearing from sight as the Professor watched, Caron already gathering together their breakfast stuff to clear the table.

Tan turned back and joined his wife, helping her to clear away. Later he got out his journal, wanting to update his progress notes and to compose a letter to the Supreme Council Financial committee, requesting more funds. Caron decided to take an inventory of their supplies for a run to the nearest town the next day. Neither Giant realised that their day was going to soon take a radically different direction when Hoge returned.