The Scene of the Crime

Yesterday, MINIMCOM had reconstructed his son, Junior, and everything was getting back to normal. Well, normal except that Aason, Rome's parents and Commander Ursay were gone. It was time to debrief Junior on what had happened but unfortunately he has less information that they wanted:

     “So what happened?” Rei asked him. “How did you get like that?”
     “And where is Aason?” Rome blurted out frantically.
     Junior looked over at the three of them. He turned in place and pointed behind them.
     “I was sitting in this field,” he said. “I didn’t bother with my stealth shield because I made myself look like a standard space tug. I figured I wouldn’t arouse any suspicion that way. I don’t know what they did but they blasted me with some sort of radiation and I couldn’t get my shield up in time. Before I could even lift off, they were slicing me up with PPT throwers and that’s how I ended up in that pile over there.” The livetar pointed to where the metal meshing had been.
     “What about Aason and my parents?” Rome asked. “Did you see what happened? Do you know where they took them?”
     “No,” Junior said sadly. “I gave them as much warning as I could, even as they were cutting me up but once they threw that netting over me, my transmitter was blocked. I’m sorry, Auntie Rome. I let you down.” The little livetar shook his head sadly.
     “It’s not your fault,” Rome said. “You did everything you were supposed to.” She looked up at her husband. “What do we do now?”
     “I don’t know,” Rei said, wracking his brain. “I have no idea where to start.”
     “I do,” Bonnie called out to them. Both Rei and Rome turned to her. “We go back to the scene of the crime and look for clues. Criminals always leave them,” she said. She stared down at the helpless forms of Troutman and Steele to emphasize her point.
     MINIMCOM picked up on her actions and the two remaining Darwin members disappeared, presumably returned to their holding cells.
     Bonnie led them back around the side of the farmhouse to the front door. Along the way, she told them about the gun-like thing she found there. They quickly mounted the stairs and reentered the study. Bonnie pointed to the far side of the room. She led them over to the desk so she could show them what she had found.
     Rei lifted up the black holder with the empty vial. Bad memories came rushing back to him. “Isn’t this…” he said.
     “Yes,” Rome said, quietly. “It is an injector. And those vials are what were used.”
     “The stuff they injected you and me with was fluorescent yellow, if I recall,” Rei said. “There’s one of those remaining. What do you think the blue stuff is?”

Obviously, Bonnie had watched a lot of police procedurals in her earlier life. Tomorrow, we'll take some guesses on the mystery vials.