Erkath's brow creased with concern as she once again checked her uniband to find that she had no new messages.
She was currently somewhere in subspace as her ship travelled through the jumpgate network from Deverinian Prime in the Hades Galaxy to Aqua Primus in the Reef Galaxy.
Now that the first batch of Earth fashion had been successfully launched, Erkath had taken Rowena up on her offer to join them for a vacation.
She sat in her cabin watching Lorelie's final concert in the Felidae Galaxy that was being broadcast on the Universal Subspace Network.
For some reason, Adam had not streamed any of Lorelie's concerts this time around.
Erkath was concerned because Emma Hopkins hadn't messaged her for a week.
Normally, the two communicated daily and it had never been so long since she had received a message from her.
Initially, she hadn't been worried and just assumed that Emma was busy with work. I mean, she was in this situation with the launch of Earth fashion and she had barely communicated with anyone unless it was work-related.
Though she was fully aware that this was just a convenient excuse, she had been losing herself in her work so as not to have to speak with people regarding her breakup with Vurguth. After all, she knew better than anyone how much his cheating on her had hurt her.
"Stop thinking about that bastard, Erkath. You know as well as anyone that unless you go through the life mate ceremony, your relationship will eventually collapse," Erkath said in an admonishing tone before she looked at her uniband again and asked.
"Where are you, Emma?"
While it wasn't unusual for members of long-lived races to go a long time without speaking with one another, Emma was not from a long-lived race and Erkath knew that she was the first alien Emma had interacted with directly.
Then there was the fact that they often discussed Adam in their private conversations. Erkath's intuition was telling her that Emma's interest in Adam was more than simple curiosity.
That same intuition was telling her that Emma hadn't messaged her back because something was wrong.
Out of concern, Erkath decided to open up Adam's stream using her uniband only to find that it was offline as expected. However, that wasn't the reason she was here.
Using the holographic keyboard that had appeared before her, she sent a message in the stream chat.
[LadyErkath (Deverinian Prime): Are there any Earthlings in the chat?]
[Forever1stCommenter (Earth): First.]
[Gunlovergirl (Earth): Where's the streamer? It's been a week since he last went live. Do you know Lady Erkath?]
[LadyErkath (Deverinian Prime): Lorelie is currently performing her New Genre tour concerts in the Felidae Galaxy and I'm guessing Adam is protecting her.]
[Celebrityhunter69 (Earth): What! She's doing her concerts? Why isn't the streamer streaming them like last time?]
[LadyErkath (Deverinian Prime): That's something you will have to ask him next time he's live.]
[Celebrityhunter69 (Earth): I plan to.]
[Noobkiller9000 (Earth): Is something wrong, Lady Erkath?]
[LadyErkath (Deverinian Prime): Have any of you heard any news regarding Emma Hopkins? I've sent her several messages but received no response.]
[Gunlovergirl (Earth): …]
[Celebrityhunter69 (Earth): …]
[Noobkiller9000 (Earth): …]
[LadyErkath (Deverinian Prime): Is something wrong? 😑]
[Gunlovergirl (Earth): Miss Hopkins is missing.]
[LadyErkath (Deverinian Prime): What do you mean by missing?]
[Noobkiller9000 (Earth): From what was reported on the news and in the press. She failed to turn up to work about a week ago and no one has seen her since.
A huge investigation has been launched since she's an important businesswoman; however, so far, no leads have been found.]
[Celebrityhunter69 (Earth): We planned to inform the streamer next time he went live.]
[Gunlovergirl (Earth): It's a shame he's not on Earth, or he might have been able to locate her.]
[LadyErkath (Deverinian Prime): Is it a suspected kidnapping?]
[Noobkiller9000 (Earth): The police say they're not ruling anything out. But so far it doesn't point to that. The lack of evidence seems to indicate that she just up and disappeared.]
"Fuck, I knew something was wrong," Erkath cursed before using her uniband to call Rowena and just as she did, she noticed Adam's stream suddenly go live.
Lorelie had just finished her final song of the show and walked off stage after thanking everyone in attendance, to find Adam waiting for her as always. Seeing him standing there patiently waiting for her always gave her a warm feeling in her heart because she knew that he fully supported her.
"So how was I?" Lorelie asked playfully.
"You ask me that after every show?" Adam replied while still smiling.
"Is it so wrong to want to hear my boyfriend's opinion on my performance?" Lorelie asked with a pout.
"Are you sure you're not just asking to hear me compliment you again?"
"I would never," Lorelie said in a defensive tone.
"Uh-huh, sure," Adam replied with a smirk before adding, "As always, your performance was amazing. While I can't comment on other singers in the known universe, I can safely say that you're better than any singer on Earth."
"See, was that so hard?" Lorelie asked smugly before giving him a quick kiss.
"So you were just after praise," Adam replied as he ticked her slightly.
"Hehehehe, hey, stop that tickles," Lorelie said as she jumped back away from him.
"Think you can escape me, do you?" Adam asked as he dived at her, only for her to dodge him before running away, while her laughter filled the backstage area.
The stage staff watched the two of them in both amusement and jealousy.
"Hehehe, you'll never catch me," Lorelie giggled cheerfully to him as she continued to escape his clutches.
Adam continued to chase her for a few seconds until a sudden notification from Spector made him stop.
[Emergency Stream Launch]
[Launching stream.]
[[Stream description below:]]
[[Stream Title: Save the CEO]]
[[Mission Parameters: While performing your bodyguard duties for Diva Lorelie, several of your viewers were in your offline chat discussing the fact that Emma Hopkins has mysteriously disappeared.
As someone you are considering to run your current and future businesses and be the figurehead, her disappearance is a major loss to you.]]
[[Mission Goal: Return to Earth and solve Emma Hopkins' disappearance. Also, determine if it was caused by ill intent towards her and if so, punish those responsible for trying to take your people.]]
[Forever1stCommenter (Earth): First.]
[Noobkiller9000 (Earth): Oh yeah, here we go.]
[Gunlovergirl (Earth): About damn time. How dare you keep a lady waiting? What sort of a gentleman are you, streamer?]
[Celebrityhunter69 (Earth): Why didn't you stream Diva Lorelie's concerts this time, streamer? 😭]
[LadyErkath (Deverinian Prime): ADAM. TELL ROWENA TO ANSWER HER FUCKING UNIBAND. THIS IS URGENT!]
[1000yearsofdeath (Earth): Damn, what's got into her?]
[DeverinianLordMalacoss (Deverinian 9): Erkath?]
[NonpareilRaphilia (Aaru): Check out the stream title. It seems the streamer needs to save someone.]
[OracleRomy (Elysium): Emma Hopkins? Isn't that CEOHopkins real name?]
[Whostolemyduck (Earth): Is this about Miss Hopkins' disappearance?]
[Lizziethetruepower (Palaxia): Disappearance? What disappearance?]
[AlamoMatador4thewin (Earth): Why does the description say that the streamer needs to return to Earth? Is he really going to come back here?]
[Gunlovergirl (Earth): Oh fuck yeah. Come back to Earth and give mommy some sugar.]
[AlamoMatador4thewin (Earth): You know you're just sounding more and more desperate, right?]
"Is something wrong?" Lorelie asked curiously as she came up beside Adam after noticing that something appeared to be wrong.
"I'm not sure. It seems something might have happened to Emma Hopkins," Adam replied.
"The woman Erkath recommended?" Lorelie asked curiously.
"Yes," Adam replied with a nod before asking, "Erkath, what happened?"
[LadyErkath (Deverinian Prime): It will take too long to type it all out. Get Rowena to answer her uniband and I will explain directly.]
Adam took Lorelie's hand and started leading her out of the backstage area while saying, "We need to find Rowena. Erkath says she needs to speak with us."
"She's probably with the others heading for my dressing room," Lorelie replied as it had become the norm for them all to meet in Lorelie's dressing room after one of her concerts ended.
Adam didn't respond except to give a quick nod before he quickened his pace.
It didn't take them long to reach Lorelie's dressing room and upon opening the door, the first thing they heard was Erkath complaining, "Took you long enough to answer, Rowena."
"I didn't hear the notification over the noise of the crowd," Rowena replied before asking, "What's wrong? Why do you look so concerned?"
"Because I am concerned. Emma has apparently gone missing, according to the other Earthlings in chat," Erkath replied.
"Missing?" Rowena replied in surprise.
"What can you tell us about this?" Adam asked as he and Lorelie entered the room.
"Not much. I have been messaging Emma for the last week with no response," Erkath began to explain. "At first, I thought she was just busy with work, but something told me it was more serious than that, so I went into your chat in hopes of proving my intuition wrong, but as always, it turned out to be right and some of your viewers told me that she has been missing for a week."
"Women's intuition," Adam remarked.
"What's that?" Tephe asked curiously.
"I will explain later," Adam replied before asking, "Who in the chat can tell me what they know about this whole situation?"