by Allen Stroud
“If they think we’re destroyed, they’ll come back here for the freighter cargo and their people,” Le Garre says.
“They’ll also want to verify we’re dead. Johansson, you mentioned you intercepted new transmissions?”
“Yes, near-field signals from a source inside our ship,” Johansson replies. “I managed to set up some interference and then isolated the transmitter. Quartermaster Chase dismantled it.”
“What about the people on the freighter? Could they signal the enemy ship in the same way?”
“Yes, they could,” Johansson says.
“Can we stop them?”
“Only if we can get in the way, or destroy their equipment.”
“That limits our time even further,” Duggins says. “We’ve only got this breathing space so long as one of them doesn’t see us.”
“The ship will come here,” I say, thinking out loud. “They’re already on their way. At close range, our weapons may have a better chance against them.”
“Captain, we don’t know their capabilities,” Keiyho says.
“But we know ours,” I answer. “Our laser and our rockets are designed for targets we can image with our telescopes and the guidance systems on the ship. If we can get them into a range where we can fire back, we have a chance.”
“Does make you wonder, though,” Duggins muses. “Who builds a ship for the sole purpose of destroying other ships? Granted, there’s plenty of that in fiction, but real space exploration and commerce has always been neutral and above all that.”
“We should not rule out the possibility of extraterrestrial life,” Keiyho says.
“We’ll know soon enough,” I say and look up at the counter on Le Garre’s screen. “In six minutes, begin a gradual power up of the ship’s systems. If the people on the Hercules have a transmitter, I want some solutions for finding and taking it out that don’t involve further risk to our crew.”
“Will do, Captain,” Johansson replies. “I have some ideas.”
“In the meantime, I’m going to the gravity deck to see the rat in the cage,” I announce and unclip my straps. “I’ll be back in thirty minutes, or before if something comes up.”
“I’ll come with you,” Le Garre says.
I shake my head. “We need someone here who can pilot the ship if we have to make a move.”
“Keiyho can handle that, or call me back,” Le Garre counters. “Need I remind you, Captain, you made me responsible for the investigation into Drake’s death?”
I stare at her. There’s a dullness to her eyes that comes, I guess, from lack of sleep. She’s pulled more shifts than all of us in the last twenty-four hours, but the steel is still there. She’s not going to take no for an answer.
“Okay, we both go,” I decide.
“Good.”
* * *
In the dark, the passageways of my ship are familiar and unfamiliar. Objects loom from the shadows, leaping out at us as we make our way through the different corridors and hatchways. The occasional item floats free, the result of being left behind and our emergency maneuvers.
I know these places. I’ve pushed and pulled myself through them for the last three years. The Khidr is my home – our home. The fact that everything I am and everything I might have been could be wiped out in an instant… That’s still something I’m adjusting to.
When you sign for Fleet, you recognise a lonely death is a real possibility. Humanity is not meant to live in a vacuum; only our technology allows us to survive. We can’t conquer space; it’s too vast and too empty for us. The best we can hope for is to endure it, while we journey to where we want to go.
The job is an anomaly. Our continual existence between places is to enable the journey of others. We’re a lifeboat, dispatched into a storm of absence, where one wrong move will unmake you, unmake everything around you too.
Dying out here is something I accepted. Dying out here and leaving no trace of who I am is not what I accept.
I’m thinking of my parents and my eyes fill with tears. I wipe them away with my sleeve. Mom is gone; Dad is old. My brother, Jethry, is not well. Soon we’ll all be gone too. No trace of us beyond our fleeting presence in other people’s lives.
“Captain?”
Le Garre’s in front of me. She looks concerned. I nod, grimace and wave her on. She opens another hatch and we’re here. Sam Chase and Tomlins are standing by the entrance to the gravity deck elevator. They both have torches. Sam turns his on me, making me flinch and blink.
“Oh, it’s you, Captain.”
“You expecting someone else?”
“No, but we’re being cautious, given the circumstances, and this place in the dark…well…it makes you paranoid.”
Sam is bloody and bruised, but seems intact. Tomlins has a cut on his forehead and his left arm in a sling. They’re both carrying small, gas-powered pistols.
“Who do we have in there?” I ask.
“Arkov,” Sam replies.
“Arkov?”
“Yeah.”
Corporal Vasili Arkov is our airlock technician. He’s a diminutive and enthusiastic dark-haired Russian, with an easy smile and energetic diligence about his work. Thinking of him as a traitor who would try to murder us all is difficult, but then I’ve shared months with all of these people and I thought I knew them all.
Right now, I want through that door to tear at him with my hands and nails for what he’s put us through.
“Is he talking?” Le Garre asks.
“Not to us,” Tomlins says.
“What’s your evidence then?”
“He was away from his post when the engineering team arrived back,” Sam explains. “When I challenged him about it, he ran.”
“That’s everything you have?”
“Pretty much.”
I’m glad Le Garre wanted to come. She’s being methodical, evaluating the information. I should be doing the same, but I can’t.
This bastard tried to destroy my home.
“Have you seen him since you chased him in here?”
“He was at the door when we locked it,” Sam says. “He screamed at us through the glass until the ship started moving. He disappeared after that.”
“Do you know he’s still there?”
“Yeah, I didn’t leave the room. Tomlins was with me when the ship went dark.”
“That was pretty dangerous,” I say to Sam. “If we’d had to pull some g’s…”
“You’d have been scraping me off the walls like Drake, I know.” He smiles. “You gave me an order, Captain. That’s important to me.”
Lights are beginning to come on. Duggins must have started the power-up sequence. “We need to get Arkov in a secure space where I can question him,” Le Garre says. “Someone will have to go in and bring him out.”
I look at each of them. They’re waiting for me to give another order and send someone through the hatch. I’m not doing that. “Tomlins, give me your sidearm,” I say.
“Captain, you can’t—”
“I can, and I am, Major; the order is given.”
Le Garre bites her lip. Sam glowers at me but says nothing. Tomlins hands me his pistol. “Quartermaster, you follow me through. I’ll move on; you wait there. If I shout, you come running.”
“Understood, Captain.” Sam moves to the hatch and touches the lock release. The door slides away and I enter the elevator. The emergency exit at the top of the compartment has been opened. Arkov must have gone up there. I grab the edge of the panel and pull myself up.
“Vasili?” I call.
There’s no answer. As the gravity deck has been retracted, the lift shaft is about ten metres long with an exit into the rotational ring at the top. If Arkov has a firearm, I’ll be an easy target floating up there.
“Vasili? It’s Captain Shan
n. I’m alone!”
I can hear Sam in the elevator below me. I look down; he looks tense and worried. “I’m going up,” I say.
“Are you sure that’s wise?”
“We’ll soon find out,” I reply. “Besides, we don’t have any choice.”
“Okay, Captain.”
I start up the lift shaft, pistol in hand. I move through zero gravity better than most. The trick is to just use a hand to steer and let my first push-off do the work.
I’m moving slowly, freely, gun aimed at the disembarkation point. “I’m coming up to you, Vasili! I just want to talk.”
There’s no answer.
I reach the end of the shaft. The door is wedged open. The recreation room is beyond it, and beyond that is the strategy room, where I last met with the senior crew before we encountered the Hercules.
It seems like a lifetime ago.
If Arkov wanted to shoot me, he could hide behind a table or one of the exercise machines. As soon as I go through the doorway, I’m vulnerable.
“Vasili, I’m here. Where are you?”
The door to the strategy room is open. It’s also wedged. I push my way toward it.
Technical operative Vasili Arkov is sitting at the table inside. His hands are on the table where I can see them. He’s staring at me as I approach.
“Vasili, I just want to—”
“To talk, yes, I heard you.” There’s a flatness about his voice and despair in his eyes. He has a red mark on his cheek. His hands and his forehead are bloody. “Did you come alone?”
I nod, keeping the pistol trained on him. “The others are waiting for my signal.”
“I’ll surrender to you,” Arkov says. “You can take me back, but I didn’t do this.”
“Why weren’t you at your post when Duggins’s team came back?” I ask.
“Because somebody called me away.”
“And who did that?”
“Quartermaster Chase.”
I’m staring at him, trying to read a lie from his face, but there’s no tell or twitch. He’s exhausted like all of us, but if he was a traitor, he could have locked the airlock rather than abandon his post. Then he’d have stranded half the crew in space. “You best tell me your version of events,” I say.
He relaxes a little. “I can do that,” he says.
“One moment.” I activate the comms bead on my lapel, making sure I’m on an open channel. “Shann to Chase?”
“Receiving, Captain. You okay?”
“We’re both fine. Arkov has surrendered.”
“You want me to help you bring him down?”
“No, we’ll both be along in a minute.” I switch the bead to personal record mode and gaze at Arkov. “Okay, I’m listening.”
“I didn’t sabotage the hydroponics compartment, Captain. I didn’t kill Drake either.”
“Just start with what happened when we ordered the EVA teams back. Where were you?”
“Just outside the airlock, at my station.” Arkov is breathing hard. His hands are gripping the table. He’s trying to stay calm, but I can tell it’s a struggle. “I got an automated request on the terminal to go to stores. It said there was an important set of equipment I needed to bring up for Duggins and his people.”
“So, you went to the stores?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“There was no one there. I was on my way back when there was an explosion, and, well…you know the rest.”
I fix him with a stare. “Is it usual for you to get an automated message like that?”
“Sure, happens all the time. Is it usual in the middle of an emergency? No, but Sergeant Chase outranks me, so I followed the order.”
“And you didn’t see the quartermaster at all when you got there?”
“No, he was missing. That’s why when he started accusing me, I ran. Maybe I should have stood my ground, but…well…I panicked.”
“We’ve all had our moments in the last few hours,” I say. I touch the comms bead again, turning off the recording. “We’ll head down now. You’ll be placed under arrest and confined. Major Le Garre will want to interview you. Tell her what you told me and anything else you remember. Don’t hold anything back.”
Arkov nods. “Okay, I will. Thank you.”
“You have my word we’re not going to prejudge you, Vasili,” I say. “We’ll get to the truth.”
Arkov sighs. “I sure hope so,” he says.
Chapter Thirteen
Sellis
The electronic chime of my door sounds, and I’m swearing to myself again. It feels like I’ve barely shut my eyes since I was—
“Technician, let me in, please.”
The voice is muffled, but authoritative. Whoever’s out there outranks me. I get off my bunk, move to the security panel and enter the keycode to unlock it.
Major Le Garre is outside.
I’ve always had a thing for the major. She’s a bit thin and younger than me, but we share a few hobbies. She likes a game of cards and a fine whisky, but she knows when to stop on both counts, particularly when the captain’s around.
“How can I help you, Major?”
Le Garre gives me a thin-lipped smile and with a few words stamps on my hope that this is a personal visit. “The quartermaster said you helped him corner Technician Arkov.”
I sigh. “Yeah, I was with him when we got to the gravity deck access point.”
“You see Arkov do anything suspicious?”
I shake my head. “I didn’t even know it was Arkov we were following. Chase mentioned it when Sergeant Tomlins arrived.”
Le Garre nods. “You think Arkov is our traitor?”
“No, Major. You know him as well as I do. He wouldn’t harm the ship. He loves it here.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Le Garre looks up and down the corridor. “What did you do after?” she asks.
“After?”
“After Tomlins sent you away.”
“Oh, yeah.” I rub my face. “Came back here, tried to sleep, failed.”
“See anything?”
I hesitate. “No,” I say at last.
“Okay, good.”
She’s still here. Maybe I’m going to get lucky after all. I pull out my top-drawer smile. “Listen, if you’re sticking around, Major, I could put some coffee on? Or something stronger if you like? You can question me all you like over a cup or two.”
Le Garre stares at me, her expression stony. “It’s not going to happen, Jake.”
“Sorry? What I’m—”
“I know you are.”
I look away and the silence gets awkward. “Is there anything else, Major?” I ask.
“No, not for now.”
“Okay then.”
The door slides shut between us. I wait a few moments, listening to her move away. Then I turn toward my empty bunk.
The screen on the wall flickers. “Incoming message,” the computer says in its usual calm, measured tone.
I glance in that direction and maneuver myself around so I can read the screen. I’m drifting in midair in front of it. “Display,” I order.
The screen brightens. A list of information starts scrolling upward. I blink, focus and start to read. These are transaction numbers. I can see my bank account ID and my name against each of them. Fuck, this is my entire credit history, all the money I owe people in Logan, Vegas, on Station Three, everywhere!
The transaction list continues for a long time. After that, names and addresses appear. My sister’s address, my parents, my uncle Sal from Maine, even some of my friends from school, technical college and army basic.
Even my ex-wife and my daughter.
What is this?
The list stops. There’s a short message at the bottom.
> We have everything on you. We will act against all of these debts and individuals if you do not cooperate.
Shit!
The screen goes blank.
Chapter Fourteen
Shann
“How is he, Doctor?”
Bogdanovic looks up at me as I enter his room. Behind him, there’s a sealed chamber on one of the beds. Our new guest, rescued from the Hercules, is inside. “Unconscious and staying that way for the time being,” Bogdanovic says. “I know you have questions for him, but he was hypoxic and suffering from carbon dioxide poisoning. While he’s out, I can regulate his breathing and gradually bring down the inflammation of his lungs.”
“How long?”
“An hour or two, minimum.” Bogdanovic holds up a hand. “I know the risk to us. I’m aware of what’s going on here. If I push the timetable up any further than that, you’ll get no information from him at all.”
I sigh. “It is what it is,” I say. “What other casualties have you had?”
“Two gunshot wounds and an assortment of cuts, bumps and bruises; plus Travers has a bad concussion. Tell that crazy Frenchwoman she needs to drive more carefully, next time.”
I smile. “I might have been piloting for some of all that.”
“Good of you to admit it. Same advice to you then,” Bogdanovic grunts.
There’s a silence between us. The doctor is busying himself, but I sense he’s waiting for me to leave. “I wanted to ask how things were for you, during it all.”
“No, you wanted to ask me if I saw anything suspicious.” Bogdanovic is looking me in the eye. It’s an intense stare. I return it evenly, determined not to flinch. “I think you need to be careful, Captain. You’ve asked the major to handle the investigation. Best you don’t go around doing her job.”
“That’s not what I’m trying to do.”
“Might be worth you seeing it from the other side then?” Bogdanovic suggests. “Let her do her job.”
More silence, more stares. “Okay,” I say at last.
* * *
When I get back, the bridge is quiet. Jacobson has returned. Duggins has left.
“Situation update, please, Lieutenant Commander Keiyho,” I say.