by Eric Warren
“It wouldn’t be in there anyway,” Cas said. “Greene and the rest of them have no idea what the Achlys is doing. Rutledge wants to keep it that way. Why do you think I’m here?”
“There has to be something,” Box said, straightening himself. “But you need to go look for it.”
“I don’t need you to tell me what to do and what not to do!” Cas yelled, the alcohol exacerbating his anxiety. “I’m just trying to get us through this in one piece and outside of any kind of room with bars on it. Isn’t that enough?”
“I guess it’s going to have to be,” Box replied.
***
Evie made her way down the corridor toward Bay One. As the large doors slid open she noticed Welles, still on his post beside the door. “How’re they doing?” she asked as he caught sight of her.
“Same as before. They’re staying put for the most part,” he replied. The crewman’s eyes were heavy. He’d been on the same posting for four days in a row now.
“No trouble?” She looked up at the ship she’d spent five days on. It seemed smaller in the large shuttle bay.
“Not yet. Though I’m not taking my eyes off him,” Welles said. “You know what he did, right?”
Evie nodded. “I know.” She’d been trying to reconcile it ever since the captain had told her and she’d done a poor job at it. The best she could do was avoid Robeaux and his robot for the duration of the trip. But something didn’t feel right about all this and she wasn’t about to let blind hatred get in the way of her judgment. She’d gotten hold of his psych reports after some persuading of Doctor Xax, telling her it was a matter of ship security. Xax didn’t put up much of a fight. Her people were naturally curious and scientific and she hadn’t found a reason not to give Evie the information.
“Crewman, take a break. I’ll stand watch for a while,” she said, not taking her eyes off the ship.
“Sir?” he said.
She turned to him. “Did you not hear me, crewman?”
Welles sputtered. “No, sir, I mean. Yes, yes, sir I did.” He tapped his chest and walked out of the bay, leaving Evie alone with the ship and its occupants. She checked the chronometer on her comm device. It was late, and yet lights in the ship were still on. She approached the ramp and walked up, heading to the ship’s main airlock.
It opened without prompt.
No big deal, she thought. If they ask why I’m here I’ll make something up about a spatial anomaly.
Why was she there? Didn’t she have enough on her plate with the initial crew evaluations due in the morning? Not to mention the primary coolant systems were only operating at sixty-five percent efficiency. And yet she was wasting time here, with these two renegades.
Raised voices filled the hallway and she made her way toward the personal quarters to hear better. The room she’d stayed in was only a couple meters away.
“…ust not willing to give it up,” Cas yelled. “I told you I’d get us out of this and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”
“And if he double-crosses you?” Box asked. He must be in Cas’s room with him.
There was a rustling of papers before Cas replied. “We’ll be ready before then. The ship is charged and ready and we’ve got enough supplies for a few months until we can get to the nearest non-aligned port. I’m not about to let Rutledge stop me again. Not when we’re so close. I promise you, we will never have to deal with the Coalition again.”
Evie’s heart panged. He thought he’d be able to get away. They still hadn’t yet realized Greene had ordered his ship disabled. But then again Blohm was as skilled an engineer as Evie had ever known. If anyone could disable the ship without them knowing, it was her. If they tried to run it would only further incriminate Cas.
The only problem was he was holding up his end of the bargain. And Rutledge wanted him arrested anyway. Was it revenge? Or was there something else? Evie had no way of knowing without finding more information. And she couldn’t do that unless someone magically granted her a higher security clearance.
“Boss, get some rest, you look like hell,” Box said.
“I like looking like hell!” he yelled. He was clearly drunk.
“It’s your life.” Box appeared in the hallway, staring at Evie who had neglected to even try and hide herself. She froze, at a loss for words. Box turned his head back so he could see inside Cas’s room. Evie fumbled to say—to explain, somehow…
Box returned his gaze to her and put one finger against his non-existent lips. Then he strode past her, back toward the ship’s cockpit. She watched him go, letting out a breath and thankful for his silence. The last thing she wanted was Cas knowing she’d snuck on his ship. She should have been more careful.
There was a further rustling of papers and then a thump against what sounded like a bed. The door to Cas’s room remained open and she felt the urge to glance inside but restrained herself. Instead, she turned back toward the airlock and let herself out.
18
Cas stumbled into the cockpit, his shirt off one arm and his pants still undone from tossing and turning the night before. “What time is it?” he asked.
Box glanced up from his vid. “Almost nine. There was a ship-wide announcement a few hours ago. We’re close.”
“What?” Cas ran his hands through his hair. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
“You looked too peaceful. I didn’t want to bother you.” He returned his attention to the vid.
“I thought you finished that show,” Cas said, righting his shirt.
“Spin-off series,” Box replied.
“Of course, spin-off. Why not?” Cas said to himself, adjusting his pants. When he’d woken up he’d been dismayed to see he’d finished the entire bottle last night. And it had been a significant part of his stash. He only had three left. And since he wasn’t welcome at the ship’s bar he might need to ration himself until this was over.
“Feel better?” Box asked, not taking his attention away from the screen.
“No, now I feel sick and hungry.”
“They’re still serving breakfast in the mess,” Box said. “Commander Diazal is there every morning.”
He snapped his attention to Box. “How do you know that?”
“She keeps a regular schedule. Breakfast right before her daily shift.” He paused. “Must be nice. All those waffles and pancakes. Syrup and eggs. Toast and rice.”
“Stop.” Cas closed his eyes and braced himself against the wall. Maybe he wasn’t as hungry as he’d thought.
Box turned to him. “Do you need to see the doctor?”
“No, I’m…I’ll be fine,” Cas replied.
“Then how about the ship’s therapist?”
“What?” Cas sat in the co-pilot’s chair. “Does this ship even have a therapist on board?”
Box shrugged. “Don’t they all? Regardless, you need to talk to someone. This is tearing you up inside. Since we’ve been here you’ve been a nervous wreck. You finished off two bottles last night.”
“I finished off two?” Cas groaned. No wonder his head hurt so bad. He hadn’t had that much to drink since right after he’d escaped the Coalition. “I’m not seeing a therapist.”
“Then talk to the commander,” Box said. “You might be surprised.”
“Evie? The person who hasn’t said one word to me over the past four days? I don’t think so.” She’d go right to Rutledge. “Plus I told you, it puts her in a precarious position.”
“Look at you, concerned with others. I’d almost think you’d morphed back to your human form,” Box said.
The words struck him. Evie had said something similar back at Devil’s Gate. “Fine,” Cas said, standing too fast. The cockpit began to spin. He had to steady himself against the wall again. The alcohol was still swimming around his system. “I’ll tell her. I’m not afraid to see what happens. I guess we’ll find out if we can trust her or not, won’t we?” He burped, not bothering to cover it. “But if it turns out I’m right make sure you’ve got
this thing fired up and ready to go. At the first sign of trouble we’re out of here.”
Box blinked rapidly, indicating happiness. “Good for you, boss. Getting it off your chest will be good for your misshapen, ugly soul.”
“You know I can always replace you with a less talkative ‘bot. They aren’t hard to come by.” Cas tried to flatten the wrinkles in his shirt as he pushed his other arm through the sleeve and made his way out of the cockpit.
“You love me,” Box called to him.
“I’ll love it when we get out of here,” Cas said, reaching his room, then his sink and tossing enough water on his face and through his hair to make himself presentable. He even added a dab of cologne. It was more to mask the smell than anything else.
Box was right. He needed to get this off his chest. Cas thought he’d be able to handle the pressure, but the constant looks, the incessant needling was wearing him down. Someone needed to know. If just one other person knew the truth then maybe he could get through the rest of this assignment without having a mental breakdown. There was a good reason he’d left all this behind. Out of sight…out of mind.
***
Cas meant to thank his escort to the mess hall but forgot when the doors opened to reveal a bunch of crewmen walking around and eating breakfast.
The commander sat at one of the far tables of the mess hall, her attention on an honest-to-Kor paper book. Cas hadn’t seen one in years. He wondered if she would appreciate seeing his maps before he remembered why he was there and made a bee-line toward her. Along the way he kept his gaze straight but couldn’t help but catch dirty looks from the crew members. Though his vision swam, he didn’t question his motives, except to briefly consider he might not be there at all had he only had one bottle last night. Cas avoided the food line and pulled up a chair in front of Evie, sitting down uninvited.
Her eyes glanced up for the briefest of seconds before returning to the book. “Make yourself at home,” she said sarcastically.
“Got a minute?” he asked.
“We’re almost at the quasar,” Evie said. “And I’m trying to finish my breakfast.”
“This will just take a minute.”
She sighed, closed the book, and took a bite of scrambled eggs. “I’m not pausing my breakfast for you. So whatever you’re going to say get on with it.”
He noticed she’d taken a cursory look around the room. Those who weren’t staring were in the midst of trying to figure out what the first officer of the ship was doing with a known criminal. But to her credit she didn’t seem to let it bother her. Instead, she waited in silence.
“I’m assuming someone told you,” he began.
“I’ve heard the gist of it,” she replied, chewing the eggs then swallowing.
“Are you working for Admiral Rutledge?” he asked.
She sat back, the question catching her off guard. “No. It was just that one assignment. Why?”
“Because if I tell you what I’m about to tell you and it gets back to him, it won’t end well for me.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Tell me what?”
Cas glanced around their immediate area. Anyone who’d been close when he’d arrived had given them plenty of room. It was as if he had his own personal force field around him at all times.
“The reports were faked,” Cas said. “The Achlys wasn’t off course. We were where we were supposed to be.”
“In Sil space?” she asked. “That’s impossible. There’s a treaty. Coalition ships don’t violate Sil space.”
“This one did. The Achlys is classified as an exploration vessel, but in reality it’s a cover. It’s really a battleship.”
“Bullshit,” she replied, tossing her fork down. “The Coalition doesn’t commission battleships. They haven’t for a hundred years.”
“They don’t commission stealth ships either and look what we’re sitting on,” Cas replied.
She considered it. “Okay. Keep going.”
“Our mission was to infiltrate Sil space. On purpose.”
“What?” Evie gasped. “That’s illegal!”
“Keep your voice down,” Cas shushed her. “I know it’s illegal. And it’s in violation of the Coalition charter and the treaty with the Sil. As well as going against the core values the Coalition purports to represent.”
“Why?” Evie asked, skeptical. Though she had lowered her voice.
He wasn’t about to give her all the details. If she knew the real reason they’d been out there it would put her in serious trouble, especially if she wasn’t working for Rutledge. Not even some of the people who’d cleared the project knew what they’d been doing. “I can’t tell you. Just know it was Rutledge’s baby. I didn’t have all the information, but from what I gleaned he and a few choice admirals in the higher ups made the decision. The crew on the ship and spacedock was minimal for a reason.”
She leaned forward. “To keep the secret?”
“Can you imagine if that got out? What it would do to the Coalition?” he asked.
“There would be internal anarchy,” Evie said, her eyes glazing over. “The whole thing could break apart from the inside out. What if the Claxians found out?”
“Exactly,” Cas said.
“But why risk going into their space? We don’t need the resources and the Sil aren’t a threat to us. Not since the end of the war almost a hundred years ago.”
“I just know my mission.”
She studied him. “So is that what happened? You did disable your ship’s weapons.”
“Only after Captain Rutledge ordered me to fire on a Sil civilian vessel we accidentally encountered,” Cas said. “We’d infiltrated Sil space for two weeks when they spotted us. Rutledge said there couldn’t be any witnesses. He told us to disable the civilian vessel before they sent for help.”
“But you didn’t do it,” she said.
He shook his head. “It was the wrong call. We should have just run. I disabled our ship’s weapons systems so when I refused the order no one else could carry it out. I knew he wouldn’t stop, so I sent out a coded frequency to the Sil alerting them to our presence. I thought he’d leave then, but he was too stubborn, and wouldn’t go.”
“Is that why your crew died?” Evie asked. “Because he wouldn’t leave?”
“If he’d returned to neutral space and just left the damn ship alone we could have made it back before we ran into trouble. But he wouldn’t let it go. He had one of the other officers restrain me while he and the bridge engineer tried to fix the weapons.”
“I take it you didn’t have a Claxian in your engineering section,” Evie said.
Cas shook his head. “No such luck.” He took a breath then let it out. “Anyway. Two Sil warships showed up and we barely made it back to the undercurrent before they destroyed the Achlys. On the way Rutledge apologized to me. Told me he knew he was wrong and he’d take responsibility once we returned to Eight. You can guess how well that went.”
“He got promoted to admiral,” she said.
“For bravery in the face of mortal danger,” Cas replied.
“What about the rest of the crew?” Evie asked. “They knew what really happened.”
“It seems,” Cas said, smacking his lips. He was parched. “They all agreed with him. Or at least that’s what I assume since no one came to my defense.” He grabbed her glass of water and drank the rest of it in one long draw. “So now you know the truth. I don’t know what he’s capable of if he finds out I’ve told you.”
Evie was speechless. She only sat in the chair, staring at him, probably trying to decide if he was lying or not. But he had to admit, he felt better talking about it. Even if she didn’t believe him, he’d managed to tell his story to someone.
“All hands, prepare for undercurrent exit. Officers report to the bridge.”
Cas glanced up to the hidden speakers in the walls. They were here. He hoped the ship had been destroyed. At least then it couldn’t do any more damage.
Evie stood, g
athering up her book. “Come with me,” she said, depositing what was left of her breakfast in the matter recycler and marching out of the room. Cas swayed slightly, getting his feet under him before he followed. Did she believe him? Was she going to talk to the captain about it?
Or had he just made a fatal mistake?
19
Evie didn’t say a word the entire way to the bridge. She’d dismissed Cas’s escort, the same crewman who’d escorted him to the mess hall in the first place. When they got in the hypervator she didn’t look at or speak to him. Cas could only assume she was about to make a report to the captain. If that’s how things were going to go he needed an exit plan. He’d taken some time studying the ship schematics and because the bridge was in the center of the ship it was easy to get to from almost anywhere. So there wasn’t just one access point; it also had backup evacuation options in case of disasters. He’d noticed it when he first entered the bridge five days ago. Directly to his right and left had been doors; one leading to the captain’s command room and the other leading to a conference room as well as a second hypervator. He could use those hypervator lines to get directly to Bay One. Cas would have to create a distraction to get past everyone and use that hyper to get down there quickly. So long as Box had done his job and didn’t start daydreaming he’d get there.
The doors to the bridge opened just as the ship lurched out of undercurrent space. The rest of the crew was already there, save Blohm whose station was occupied by another engineer. And it seemed there was a different pilot as well, Ronde, the kid who’d piloted the ship out of the spacedock with such grace was nowhere to be seen.
Greene didn’t look up when Cas entered with Evie; his attention was on the main display in the middle of the room. It showed open space but in the distance was a tiny object Cas couldn’t make out. He glanced over to one of the two-dimensional screens but they only showed the same image: a tiny white object moving against a field of stars.