by Allen Stroud
“It’s simple,” Rocher says. “Decelerate and let me signal the Gallowglass. The two ships will rendezvous, and we can discuss what’s happened. We’ll then communicate with our contacts in Fleet and agree on an incident report. Your crew will be briefed on the real situation. After that, things will have to change out here. It’ll be rough, but we’ll make it through. In the meantime, no one else on the Khidr needs to die.”
“If that was your message all along, why didn’t you just tell us, rather than try and wreck our ship?” Le Garre asks.
Rocher laughs mirthlessly. “I’m not a fool, Major. You’ll go away and discuss what I’ve said and probably reject the proposal; we’d anticipated that. Soldiers often respond best when they are given the least-worst option. My orders were to ruin your ship and give you no choice but to surrender. Right now, you still think you’ve got a reason and rationale for what you’ve chosen to do. You think you’re right, morally, and you still have hope – you think you can beat us. The deaths of your people and the freighter crew are clouding your judgement. That was always going to be the case. Sabotage offered a better percentage.”
I’ve heard enough. I move toward the door. “Le Garre?”
She’s glaring at Rocher, but he doesn’t flinch or turn away. She backs up, opens the door, and we both leave.
“I want you, Travers, Duggins and Keiyho on the gravity deck, now,” I say when we’re clear.
“Understood, Captain,” Le Garre replies.
* * *
Silence in the strategy room.
I’m looking at my senior officers. No one meets my eye. The expressions around me are variations of shock and horror. They echo my own feelings. It’s one thing being alone in space, knowing you’re thousands or millions of kilometres from society and civilisation; it’s quite another to find the vocation that brought you here questioned and undermined.
On the table between us is my communications bead. It has just finished replaying our interrogation of Kieran Rocher.
“Given what we know now, I’ll understand if any of you think I’ve made a wrong decision in the last few hours,” I say.
Keiyho looks at me. “Captain, you must be careful not to take this man at his word,” he cautions, his soft voice instantly soothing my soul. “He has much to gain by you accepting everything he has said exactly as he has said it.”
“We can’t dismiss it, though,” Duggins counters.
“No indeed,” Keiyho says. He holds up a finger. “Our intruder has knowledge of us. He has obtained this from Fleet records. That means he is Fleet, or has been briefed by someone who works for Fleet.” Keiyho extends a second finger. “Our intruder is aware we received a classified data dossier about the Hercules. He knows we have accessed it and that the dossier confirms the freighter was carrying materials and resources to set up a secret colony.”
“We didn’t mention any prior incidents of sabotage or what happened to Drake,” Le Garre adds. “There was nothing in Rocher’s responses to suggest he knew anything about that.”
Keiyho nods at Le Garre and extends a third finger. Then a fourth. “Our intruder claims to have boarded our ship while we were boarding the Hercules. We must find out how and where this was done.”
“Without cutting into the hull, which we’d have been alerted to, I’d say the airlock or the drone garage,” Duggins says. “The rocket pods are also possible, but again, cutting into the ship from there would have triggered a depressurisation alarm.” He accesses a tactical map of the ship. “I can get someone to check the garage, but it’ll be hard to distinguish between Rocher’s work and the pounding we took from the Gallowglass.”
Keiyho nods to him and extends his thumb. “Our intruder claims the authority of Fleet and that we must trust him over our standing orders. We must verify this, as soon as possible.”
“The EVA then?” I say.
“Yes, the EVA.”
“We’re missing something,” Le Garre says. “Rocher knew where to find the replacement comms rig. We only caught him because Captain Shann happened to pass by and disturb him. Someone must have told him where the equipment was being stored.”
“That means our traitor might still be on the loose,” Travers says.
“And that Arkov is innocent,” Duggins adds.
I sigh and run a hand through my hair. “Or, that we have more than one person trying to destroy this ship from the inside.” I gaze at my senior team again. “Before all this started, had any of you heard rumours about an independence movement, some sort of secret colony or covert war?”
“We’ve all seen news reports where people are complaining about public money being put into space programmes,” Travers says. “Given what information we have, it’s not surprising people out here want to preserve and protect what they have.”
Le Garre rounds on him. “You agree with this?” She gestures at the hydroponics compartment, greyed out on our ship’s schematic. “This is the result of division, of partisan politicking with people’s lives.”
“And you’re defending the armed and murderous response then?” Travers says. “Takes two sides to make a war.”
“And we’re in the middle,” I say, glaring at them both. “All of us, together, no matter what we decide.”
“Apart from those who’ve already tried to sabotage our ship,” Duggins mutters.
“And because of that, we need to be able to talk this out,” I say. “The five of us are all that’s holding this crew together.”
Keiyho taps a finger on the table, drawing my attention. “You have all met here before, without me, when this started,” he says. “I am interested to know why I was excluded.”
“We were going to include you, but then someone interfered with my computer,” I explain. “You were on the bridge at the time.”
“You thought it was me?”
“I had no way of knowing,” I reply.
Keiyho smiles. “Your doubts were reasonable. And now we find ourselves swirling amid doubts.” He looks at Travers. “We four were on the bridge with Jacobson when Drake died. You were not.”
“Are you accusing me of—”
Keiyho holds up his hand. “No, please, I am making a point about suspicion.” He turns to me. “You and I were together on the Hercules when the hydroponics compartment was blown up. Duggins was only a few metres away.”
“Both Travers and Le Garre were on bridge comms,” I add. “In sight of each other.”
“Indeed,” Keiyho says. “But it is easy to lose track. A reminder that we all have good reasons to trust one another is important.”
“I see where you’re going,” Travers grunts. He looks more relaxed; they all do. “What about the time just before we caught Rocher?”
“Duggins was on the bridge with me,” I say. “I spoke to Le Garre on comms, and Keiyho arrived to capture our guest.”
“Where were you?” Keiyho asks Travers.
“Asleep until I heard the alert,” he replies.
Keiyho nods. “I, too, cannot provide a definitive answer for my actions at the time the captain’s screen was tampered with. However, my actions during this situation are cumulative, as are yours. I am not a traitor to this crew.”
“Neither am I,” Travers says.
Keiyho smiles. “None of us are traitors,” he says. “That is the basis on which we must proceed. If any of us were, we could have already destroyed the ship.”
“It’s also important we consider the information bubble we’re in,” I add. “We’ve had a limited digest of news from Earth and the colonies. It’d be pretty easy for someone with an agenda to play on our hopes and fears.”
There are murmurs of agreement around the table, and I’m feeling relieved. We’re all exhausted, but at least our suspicions of one aother are alleviated.
For now.
“Rocher wa
s right about one thing,” Le Garre says. “We do have to make a choice.”
I shake my head. “The minute you start considering things that way, he’s won. We have our orders; we fulfil them.”
Duggins nods. “If Fleet wanted us not to intercept the Hercules, or to back away from a confrontation with the Gallowglass, they had ample time to send orders. Yes, the situation is complicated, but our role in it is clear.”
Le Garre shrugs. “We all know being an officer in battle means being prepared to make the wrong decision and lives to be lost because of it. Captain Shann will have to answer for whatever we decide.”
Travers grunts. “If we survive.”
“We must survive.” I glare at him. “What happened here must be reported. Only then can the right decisions be made on the matters we’ve uncovered.”
Le Garre leans over the table and brings up a crew roster alongside the ship schematic. “If we discount all of us and those who we’ve lost, we’re down to the rest of the crew.”
“What about Technician Shah?”
“I’ve checked the crew manifest,” Le Garre says. “I’ve also interviewed him. I think he’s legitimate.”
“He wasn’t here for both of the main incidents,” Travers adds.
“I was on my way to review the data dump Duggins gave me of the last two hours aboard the Hercules to check his story,” I say. “I’ll go through that when I leave here. I think we can consider him loyal, for now.”
“What about Arkov?” Duggins asks.
“That’s a more difficult decision,” Le Garre says. “His story about leaving his post matches the information I got from Chase.”
“So, it’s either the truth or a very plausible lie?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“If you’re in agreement, I’d like to release him,” I say to Le Garre. “We place him on supervised duty for now and keep him away from Rocher.”
She gazes at me for a moment, but then nods. “Yes, let’s do that.”
“Good.”
“I’d say we try to ensure everyone is supervised,” Travers says. “All crew stay in twos at least, whenever possible. That may give us a chance of finding our traitor.”
“Most of our people are exhausted,” Duggins says. “Mistakes will be made.”
“I’ll speak to the doctor and authorise the use of stimulants,” I say. “We’re going to need to work all the hours we can to prepare for the next round.” I lean over the table and cancel the ship schematic and roster, replacing them both with a trajectory map. “This is what we should concern ourselves with at the moment. The Gallowglass is still accelerating. She’ll catch us before we reach Phobos orbit. She’ll have to decelerate to engage, but she can still pass us at speed, launching guided missiles.”
“I think we can assume she won’t look to repeat what happened before,” Keiyho says. “Their speed is dangerous to us, but also an advantage. They will have less time to make course corrections. The advantage range they had is also nullified, to a point.”
“To a point?”
“They can still launch their guided missiles at us when they get in range,” Keiyho explains. “However, those missiles will be travelling at a higher velocity, which means course corrections may be more difficult for them. Our rocket mines will be slowing down, not speeding up, and they don’t have the same kind of guidance systems. We’re relying on the fact that the Gallowglass can’t change course because they’ll lose us.”
“We need other plans and scenarios,” I say. “They must be considering their options.”
Keiyho and Duggins exchange looks. “We’ll see what we can come up with,” Duggins says.
“Talk to Johansson,” I tell them. “She seems to be having a lot of good ideas.”
“I will,” Duggins promises.
* * *
An hour later, I’m back in my room, eating and drinking through a tube and looking at the data dump from the Hercules that Duggins sent me.
Much of the information is continual maintenance content that won’t help us. I scan through, looking for security camera footage. There are hundreds of files. Sorting them by date narrows the selection, but there’s still a long list categorised by camera code number.
I stifle a yawn. The pain medication and everything that’s happened has taken its toll. I’ll sleep soon, while I can.
I open video file after video file, checking the time stamps and speeding through the footage. I pause one when I recognise the crumpled corridor from my EVA visit to the ship. There are three people manoeuvering containers into the passage.
Wait a minute. Three people? Shah only mentioned two…
Suddenly I’m awake. I watch carefully, spooling backward and forward through the clip. Another three have the same time stamp and I open those as well. In one, several shadowy figures move toward the camera. A face appears, inches from the camera, and the footage ends. I wind back and pause the feed on the frame before.
It’s Technician Shah. He’s taken out the camera.
Why?
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sellis
Well, fuck.
I’m staring at the blackened interior of the communications housing. The whole system is ruined. There’s no way I can fix this.
Duggins’s damage assessment of the Khidr’s broadcast antenna on the outside of the ship is that it’s ruined. We’ll need to construct a new one, go outside and attach it to the ship to replace the old one. The problem is that there’s nothing to connect it to.
Without an antenna and relay, we can’t contact anyone. We’re out here on our own.
Black flakes float out of the open electronics housing, and I can smell the charred particulates in the air. The whole ship stinks of burned cables and circuit boards and will for a while as the atmosphere recyclers ingest and redistribute gases into every compartment. I know the scrubbers will filter out the fragments, and really, I’m probably not breathing as much of this scorched-up plastic as I might think, but that cold rational voice doesn’t make a lot of difference, right now.
I reach out and scrape the back of the housing with my nail. More black dust comes away to float in the air around me. There’s not much between this and the outside of the ship.
“Sellis to Duggins?”
“Go ahead.”
“The communications processor is a bust, completely destroyed. We’re not going to be able to repair this. We’ll need to seal up the box too. It could give way at any moment.”
“I’m seeing your feed,” Duggins says. That means he’s looking at the same thing as me through the camera strapped to my forehead. “You’re authorised to make the repair. Nothing we can do with this.”
“Sorry, chief.”
“Yeah, me too.”
I pull out the foam gun and activate it, filling the housing with grey paste. Within twenty minutes, it’ll set and harden, turning the old box into a reinforced slab, which will strengthen the wall against any residual damage. The only problem is, if we have to get to any of the cabling behind it, we’ll have to smash our way through. The foam has some flexibility to it, but it’s a temporary solution.
I’ll need to open up everything else, but that’s not an urgent priority. The atmospheric sensors are broken, but the portable kit tells me we’re not losing air in here. There are repair crews all over the ship, trying to repressurise essential areas. Duggins is leading the effort to rebuild the airlock personally. I really don’t want to end up working on all that.
The last briefing organised the majority of the crew into three different repair details. Thankfully, one or two of us are needed to sort some specific small jobs. I volunteered for those because I suck at telling anyone else what to do.
My own space. I’ve always liked to be on my own, working alone, my way, talking to the broken machines, bringing them back to
life. Other people get in the way.
Being here, with no one around, gives me time to think.
There are a few people exempt from repair duty. A rotation of the bridge staff are needed to keep us operational and on course. I can contact them if I need a system checked or tested. Doctor Bogdanovic and the security team are exempt from shifts too. They have to be now we’ve caught the intruder.
I shudder just thinking about him. What was his name? Rocher, that’s what they said. Le Garre has him locked up for questioning. I think about the message I got on my screen. Could that have been him? When I turned off the security cameras, was I helping him? I have to believe I was. If I was and he mentions my name, they’ll lock me up too.
Should I confess? March up to the captain and tell her all about the computer messages and everything? If they find out some other way, I’ll be in the shit. Fleet laws are severe, particularly in deep space. There’s even a regulation that allows the ranking officer on a ship to execute someone as a ‘waste of oxygen’. Looking around at the state of the Khidr, that might be a factor.
They’ll probably keep the intruder alive. He’s probably more valuable as a source of information. I don’t know anything other than that I’m being played. I’m useful to whoever sent that message so long as I don’t start squealing and no one else squeals either.
If that guy Rocher gives me up, I’ll be arrested, but as long as no one’s come for me, he hasn’t given me up. This is a gamble, something I’m familiar with. My life’s on the line, but then it was every time I owed money to bad people and when I stole from army stores. This is nothing new.
Shit. Why is it things always get complicated when I’m not on my own, repairing machines?
I key up my comms. “Sellis to Duggins?”
“Go ahead.”
“I’m done here for now. Moving on to hydroponics.”
“Affirmative.”
I drift out of the chamber, toolkit and emergency metres dragging behind me on tethers. It’s not far to the garden chambers, but I know what’s waiting for me won’t be a pretty sight.
I reach the sealed hatch at the end of corridor seven and look through into a ruin.