by Leslie Lee
vision. Following Th'han'dra was all he could manage. And what he really wanted to do was punch a hole in the bare metal of the walls hemming him in.
Claustrophobics had no place on the X. Corridors were narrow and low. Badly lit. Somehow, with a ship the size of a DreadNought, there should've been more room. He'd seen photos of a WWII sub once. The X wasn't quite that bad. But it was close. He badly wanted to find some place open, wide, and clear. Someplace where everything didn't smell and feel of somebody else. The air suddenly didn't seem to hold enough oxygen.
Th'han'dra palmed the lock to the Blue Box dorm and he followed her in. He'd go and secure the package in his cubicle. And rest. Try to catch his breath. He needed to be alone in the worst possible way. Then he saw the squad sitting around the common table. On the table were nine glasses. In each glass was an amber liquid. Scotch. Single malt scotch. The real thing. Or at least that's what he was told. A ceremony for the loss of a member of the squad. Always been eight. He frowned trying to reason out why there were nine.
"We know you were close," Th'han'dra said. "But we all loved and respected Telli."
"Boss, we've lost one of our own," said Ranger, his voice quiet.
"Eh," said K'hon loudly. "She wasn't that good. Sure she was the best Squad Ops officer around, knew her people inside and out, cared for us all. So what, huh? So what?"
He knocked back his drink.
"That bitch went by the book all the damned time," said Sha. It surprised Mak. Her words were strong and angry. "There wasn't a thing that she didn't know. Always had the answer to any question. Always looking out for you. Screw her."
She gulped down her drink and coughed.
"Quite right," said Dakota. He stared at his drink like he was trying to ignite it. "And she bloody well threw the book out if it wasn't working. Always coming up with sensible ideas and forcing them down our throats. Wretched woman. If you ask me, it's good riddance to bad rubbish."
Dakota drank. He raised his eyebrows appreciatively of the fine liquor.
"Man, all them boring lectures on looking out for each other and teamwork and making sure we stuck together and shit like that. Who the hell did that little girl think she was anyway? Free to roam at last I say."
Ranger drank.
"She always said I could come and talk to her at any time. As if I have the time and energy to unburden myself to an alien? Sure, I did it just to make her feel good. But she's gone now and so's that little chore."
Jerry drank. He wept openly. Thick, dark liquid seeped from the cracks in his face where his eyes hid. It was strange to Mak to see him cry which he did when laughing too hard or at the memorial for the previous Blue Box Leader. Only the Hellborne cried like Humans.
"She was terrible in bed. And it was only one time thankfully. Her body wasn't that great or anything. No loss there."
Zin Zin wept into her glass and sipped at the fiery alcohol. She gave a kind of guilty look at Mak, but he just nodded at her. And she sobbed more.
Th'han'dra picked up her glass. "I am not going to miss her wisdom nor her kindness. A great weight has been lifted from me."
She shared her drink with those remaining since she didn't imbibe alcohol. The others drank for her.
Mak picked up his glass. "I didn't respect her at all." He drank the fiery liquid.
Ranger poured a little more scotch from the ninth glass into the empty glasses except for Th'han'dra who just held hers.
"Telli," Mak said, raising his glass and they all raised theirs. "Calm."
The liquid burned his throat. He really wasn't much of an alcohol drinker and was glad he had to down only a little. His face turned red from the strong liquor. This wasn't the first time he'd had to drink scotch. And it probably wouldn't be the last. After he got out of the service, he didn't think he'd ever touch the stuff again.
Ranger looked at Th'han'dra who nodded. He cleared his throat. "Boss, we know that?"
Mak was glad the scotch had hurt enough to knock him out of his stupor.
"Yeah," he said, interrupting. "It's going to be rough losing Telli. Looks like Diego is going to be Squad Ops Chief."
There were groans but they all looked puzzled. It wasn't like him to interrupt.
Trust. Who to trust? But if he couldn't trust Blue Box, then who? And if he couldn't trust these people, what would that say about him?
He pulled the package out, removed the home made scanner and flicked it on. "I just think that we should all just pitch in and help him."
"That asshole?" scoffed K'hon. "What the fuck is?"
Jerry jabbed him in the ribs. "Uh yeah, pitch in to help."
"Pitch in to help," repeated Zin Zin.
He switched it on and scanned the room. Five. There were five listening devices in the main dorm room.
"We need to pull together and get past this," he rambled on. He went into his own cubicle. There was one in there.
"That's right," Ranger said. "Pull together"
"Sure, pull together, that's what we should do," agreed Jerry, vaguely.
They were all fascinated.
"We need to get past this," Th'han'dra said, trying to fill in the silence.
He walked into the bathroom.
"By pulling together," Jerry said.
"Pulling it is the best thing," Zin Zin said. The others looked at her and smirked. "That's not what I meant, you filth brains. I meant we should altogether just pull it." Somebody sniggered. "Shut up already, you bastards."
The bathroom had two.
"I didn't check my pod when we docked," he said. "That's where I'm going."
"Yeah, I'll keep you company, Boss," Ranger said languidly.
"Think I'll go to the mess hall," Th'han'dra said.
They split up, knowing where to meet. Possibly the noisiest place in the Universe: Flight maintenance. There was an observation room nobody used. The noise bled into the room as if the walls simply didn't exist. Its approach was virtually hidden and nobody could see in as long the lights were off. Zin Zin, of course, had found it. According to her, she'd only taken Blue Box pilots here.
Mak led three of Blue Box into the room. He pulled out the little scanner. It showed nothing. He sat down and waited. The rest took seats. It wasn't long before the others joined them. Dull throbbing and strange banging seeped in to the room. He didn't want to shout so ignoring the table, he gathered them around him.
"Uh, Ranger?" he said. "What were you going to say back there?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, right." He massaged his rubbery chin. "We all reckon that something's going on. Don't take any kinda genius to see it. You've been having us watch Telli for you."
"That obvious?" he asked, chagrined. It was true. He couldn't be with Telli all the time. So, he'd find some excuse to have one of them with her.
"And what's with the guns?" Zin Zin said.
"You haven't been yourself," Th'han'dra added.
"And what the hell is that?" K'hon asked pointing at the box.
"It's Telli's." He passed it around. "Bug hunter."
K'hon swore some D'ha'ren oath. The dorms were not supposed to have security devices of any kind.
Ranger snatched it away from K'hon. "Whoa, there, big fella. This here finds the devices, it's not one of them." But even Ranger looked angry and he usually took everything in stride.
"How long have those damned things been there?" K'hon spat out. He slammed his fist into his palm. "Somebody's in for an ass-kicking."
"Don't know. Let me tell you guys what I do know."
There wasn't much. Telli had been suspicious for a couple of months. Detailing it out loud made it seem vague and lame. If it weren't for the listening devices he'd have nothing.
"S'pose we have to rule on out Jump Fever," said Ranger, lazily. Jump fever was a combination of battle fatigue, boredom, and claustrophobia, often brought on by the Jump. It expressed itself in delusions, paranoia, tremors, loss of weight, and insomnia. Simply put, the person fell apart. It was hard to miss.
; "Telli didn't have Jump Fever," he said, forcing down his anger. "I don't either."
Ranger nodded dismissing the issue.
"We got nothing here, Boss" Jerry said.
"Could all just be just plain old coincidence," agreed Ranger.
"Does this have anything to do with Gold Ghost?" asked Th'han'dra.
"That was what Telli was looking into. She was able to detect communications between all the BG ships. They were over some kind of rotating comm channel. Encrypted up the wazoo. She got nothing. But there was an increase in that traffic after Gold Ghost disappeared. Though it shut down or became more hidden. Telli thought they'd figured out she was paying attention."
They were silent.
"Have you guys discussed my behavior where they could be listening?"
Zin Zin shook her head. "I don't think we discussed anything in the dorm except that you appeared real smitten with Telli."
The others indicated their agreement. Smitten? He wasn't smitten, he thought.
"I don't know what's going on. For all I know, the bugs could be part of some secret op that has nothing to do with, uh, I don't know, whatever. And Gold Ghost's disappearance is just bad luck. And Telli was killed by just an accident. Things happen all the time."
Th'han'dra nodded. "We could be interfering in something that's perfectly legitimate. Gold Ghost ran into something else. Telli had some bad luck."
"What about the bugs?" K'hon asked. "That's strictly against regulations. Dorms are off-limits to that kind of sensor."
"Perhaps, old son, somebody secret is looking for something," offered Dakota, playing with his silver earring. "You said they were in Gold Ghost's quarters. Perhaps a new security initiative by the hush