Lunar Colony VI

by A Keuser

  TERMINAL SHIFT

  S

  crutiny was something Nala Klef stringently avoided. With a new name, her skill with electrical engineering, and the forged

  paperwork to back up both, she’d accepted her job on Lunar Colony Six with a plan to keep her head down and to let her past as a bomb builder fade into memory.

  She’d been doing well, too… until a handful of days ago.

  Now, in the Partner’s chambers, she had to do something drastic. Head in her hands, fingers pressed to the skin of her forehead and temples, she glared at the floor while her elbows dug into the top of her legs. The meeting happening overtop of her could be disastrous and she couldn’t keep herself from fidgeting.

  “You’re wasting time,” she said under her breath even though she knew the four women who ran the colony wouldn’t hear her.

  The current disaster had little to do with her past life as Verity Luttrens and everything to do with the myriad events a woman known to her only as “Diana” had set in motion. It had started with a nearly destroyed skywalk in which she’d been trapped with a bomb of her own making. Power outages and the transfer of the colony’s power to the aspersion hub had added to the damage, and finally, the discovery of the woman who’d murdered at least three of the colony’s citizens. They had yet to discover the full extent of Diana’s involvement in the whole mess.

  For the brief time the colony partners had Diana in custody, she’d pointed them toward Verity, and the discussion occurring now was pure damage control. The partners believed Verity was involved, and until they got back on track, the full force of their authority couldn’t be turned toward looking for the true problems.

  The impending crisis in the colony was more important than keeping her identity safe. Pushing herself to her feet, she barked out a single order, “Be quiet!”

  The affronted looks she received would have been comical if she wasn’t exhausted and frustrated to the point of apathy.

  She cleared her throat, and before anyone cut her off, said, “We can’t call out and we don’t know what’s happened within the colony walls with any real certainty. Talking isn’t going to fix our problems. So right now, I’m going to answer the questions you don’t know you need to ask. Then we’re going to deal with the issues that are actually putting the lives of your colony’s citizens at risk.”

  Partner Chadha started to speak, but Nala held up a hand. “Verity is not behind this. Diana used her name to distract you.”

  “How can you be sure?” Chadha asked.

  At the same moment, Partner Elodie said, “The bomb inside the skywalk with you had her signature.”

  Partner Dendrond shook her head behind them with a wide-eyed warning. Nala ignored her.

  “I would not have tried to kill myself.”

  Silence struck through the room and Nala let herself observe the slow recognition and shock sweeping over the faces of the three partners who hadn’t known.

  She continued before any of them could interrupt. “I have no reason to have done any of these things. If I did, I wouldn’t have told you who I am. Now, you can have my resignation, since I don’t expect any of you will want me here now… knowing what you do. But, until we sort out the damage Diana did and figure out if we’re going to see anymore fallout from it, you need to stop blabbering and we need to get to work.”

  Partner Turan studied her before turning her back, as though her actions removed Nala from the room. “I believe that she is Verity – it explains how she was able to assist our incendiary specialist. And if she says she’s not involved… I believe her. Why would she work so hard to stop the things she’d set in motion? And as I said before, I thought Diana was too quick to give up her connection to Verity in the first place.”

  Elodie nodded her assent. “We have things to take care of and we’ve wasted too much time already.”

  A ripple of agreement struck through the women around her, and they filed out, each with a task to complete.

  Chadha held up her hand and stopped Nala before she could follow the others out. “There’s one more thing.”

  “No,” Eri said, sternly. She had not moved. “There isn’t.”

  Eri stood to her true height and, for the first time, Nala noticed Partner Dendrond was a full head taller than Chadha.

  Chadha glared at her with narrowed eyes. “We all agreed the permissions need to be transferred. With this new information, I think the need is greater, not less.”

  The aspersion hub needed two clearance holders to operate. It was a safety mechanism for a barbaric device, meant to keep a single person from cutting off a sector full of people and venting their oxygen.

  Nala had no desire to keep the permissions she currently held.

  Eri, it seemed, had no intention of letting her relinquish them.

  “I won’t input the secondary permissions,” Eri said. “The aspersion hub was never intended to be used without a non-partner in control of half of the permissions. I won’t agree to a changeover that sees those original rulings violated. It’s bad enough we had to switch over to the damn thing in the first place.”

  Chadha bared her clenched teeth as she let out a frustrated breath and then said, “Then we’ll find a neutral party to switch the commands to.”

  “I’m fine with that.” Eri held her hand toward the door. “In the meantime, we need to see what other damage Diana did.”

  Ensconced in a panel of dead wiring, Nala cursed and pulled herself back out. “Another panel that is perfectly normal.”

  “You say that like you wanted to find something.” Eri’s words were followed by an apologetic smile and offer to help her up.

  Shrugging, Nala got to her feet and wondered why Chadha had insisted they work together. She ignored Eri’s offer of assistance. “I don’t like the uncertainty. Even if I do find something, I don’t know how long Diana had to plant other bombs or mess with other systems. Who knows if I’ll have to get into the access ducting. This is a nightmare.”

  “It’ll work out.” Eri gently squeezed her arm. Nala didn’t have the same kind of faith in their situation.

  She set the panel back in place, securing its screws, and started down the corridor. Eri would follow her if she wanted to.

  The next stop wasn’t far, and Nala wove through the corridors on autopilot.

  Her shadow fell into step beside her. “You don’t have to solve this problem, you know. It’s not your fault, and it’s not your responsibility.”

  “It became both when Diana used one of my bombs.” Nala entered her code and walked into an empty mechanics lab, and said, “Let’s just hope we find anything she’s left behind as quickly as humanly possible.

  When Nala took her next step, the deck plating beneath her feet felt suddenly springy.

  “What in the—”

  Before she could say another word, a terrible rumbling groan echoed around them. She took another step and her knees threatened to buckle with the oddity - as if she were walking across a trampoline.

  Cabinets popped open and tools fell from their shelves. The diagnostic equipment jittered along the floor and Nala grabbed hold of a nearby work table to steady herself. The room shimmied and two lights overhead burst. It was as though the whole colony lurched to the side.

  When the shaking finally died, Nala let out the breath she hadn’t known she was holding. “I didn’t know we were in an area that got moonquakes.”

  Eri shook her head violently. “That wasn't a quake. There aren't any tectonic plates on the moon; there's nothing to shift. Whatever that was, it sure as hell wasn’t natural."

  Nala checked her balance before releasing her hold and asked, “Diana?”

  Eri shrugged, but kept a firm grip on the table. “Unless there’s someone else who’s decided to cause mayhem.”

  The colony outside the lab was in chaos. Less secure panels had fallen from walls and ceilings alike, and Nala saw shadows of people running past the cross corridor.

  She sme
lled the acrid tang of smoke, broken by whiffs of the lemony fire suppression foam. Whatever had caused the shake, it had given her a lot more work to do once she was sure Diana’s damage couldn’t hurt anyone else. Of course, that thought worked off of the assumption the partners wouldn’t fire her outright.

  “I have to check in with the other partners,” Eri said, her voice distant as she looked along the hallway, scowling at the damage.

  “Didn’t Chadha want you to keep an eye on me?”

  Eri rolled her eyes. “You’re not going to do anything to bring the colony down.”

  Nala made a small noise of acknowledgement and returned to the room.

  The panel she needed to access was on the far side of the room. By the time she pulled the cover from the wall and glanced back, Eri was gone. It was better that way. She worked more quickly alone.

  Another shudder went through the colony and Nala braced herself, hoping it wouldn’t be as bad as the last. A moment later, it was gone, like a shiver running down the colony’s spine. The thought sent one racing down hers. She needed to get this done and figure out how they could stop the shaking from happening again.

  The door opened with a screeched groan and Nala made a mental note she’d have to add door alignment to her list of fixes post-Diana.

  Chadha took two strides and stopped abruptly, eyes narrowing as she looked Nala over. “What are you doing in here?”

  Shoulder deep in the wires, it was all Nala could do to not roll her eyes. “Looking for any potential problems Diana might have left for us in the primary circuitry… like you told me to.”

  “Where is Partner Dendrond?” Chadha asked as she walked quickly to a lab table and took hold of its edge.

  Pausing, Nala studied the woman before answering her question. “She went to meet up with you to discuss the thing that wasn’t a moonquake.”

  Chadha didn’t say anything; didn’t move. Her face contorted in a scowl and she turned sharply away. Nala didn’t have time to guess what was going on in the partner’s head, so she ignored her and went back to work.

  All connections were secure, nothing had been spliced in that shouldn’t have been there. It was business as usual – as usual. When she was done, she checked the wiring’s framework and connections, just in case.

  When she finished, she turned back to find Chadha hadn’t left. While she didn’t want to chit chat, she didn’t think the woman had stuck around for the fun of it.

  “Is there something you need from me?” Nala asked as she stripped off her gloves and stuffed them in her bag.

  Chadha’s face was set in a stern frown when she finally turned her attention back to Nala. “You shouldn’t be left alone.”

  “Ah,” Nala said, smiling tightly. “The bomber needs to be supervised.”

  “Don’t act like I’m treating you unfairly. You’ve lied to us for too long. Who knows what you could have done?”

  Allowing herself a sigh, Nala shrugged. “Fine, but don’t slow me down. I need to get this dealt with and then I need to get outside to get the antenna array fixed. I don’t know how long that will take.”

  Chadha followed her out, keeping pace and giving no commentary. Thankful for the latter, Nala pulled her tablet out of her bag. She marked off the lab and mapped the quickest route to the next problem point.

  She walked for a few minutes without interference before Chadha grabbed her arm and forced her to stop.

  “Wha—?” before Nala could finish her question, Chadha interrupted. “You’re welcome.”

  The partner nodded toward the approaching hallway and Nala looked at it suspiciously.

  Shrouded in darkness because of blown out fixtures, it was half filled with suppression foam, and the rest held the lingering remnants of smoke.

  “I don’t think you want to slog through that,” Chadha said and then pointed toward a corridor that hadn’t been affected.

  Nala swallowed back the disgusted comment she was going to make about the foam and its effect on fabrics. “Thanks.”

  “I don’t hate you,” Chadha said with a sigh, glancing at the mess in the hallway. “If I did, you’d have to deal with getting that gunk off your boots and pants for the next twelve hours… or smell like a fruit stand.”

  Nala blinked at her, unsure of why the woman thought she needed to know of her lack of hatred. When nothing came to her immediately, she shrugged and strode away. Her tablet beeped at her for the course change, but she ignored it. The sooner she got this over with, the sooner she could ditch her newest babysitter.

  Chadha was a quiet babysitter – if annoying in her hovering. By the final checkpoint, she’d stopped muttering her irritation and asking how much longer they would be.

  Nala was waiting for her next opportunity to say “as long as it takes,” but it had not arisen. Oddly, she found herself disappointed.

  As she cleared the last of the items on her list, she considered letting Chadha think they had one more to do. Even if her plan was simply to lead the partner back to the hub, the potential for problems elsewhere was a higher priority than annoying the woman.

  “Done. Okay, let’s go find out what else I need to do so you can hand me off to someone else.”

  Chadha didn’t agree or even smile. She nodded and led the way out of the room and down the corridor.

  Around them, lab techs and colony workers were returning to their jobs. Someone had given the all clear.

  “You don’t look happy. I thought completing your rounds would be cause for celebration.” Chadha’s words were careful, her tone wary.

  “Until I’m certain there’s nothing else that will go wrong… I’ll continue to look for a trap.”

  Chadha glanced at her, frown deepening. “A week ago, I would have told anyone who asked that you were among our most valuable citizens. Now… you’re certainly our most confusing. I don’t know what to make of you.”

  “I have an understanding of wiring and mechanics and now you know that leant itself toward the idiotic pursuit of bomb building,” Nala said. “I’ve lived with my past for a lot longer than you have. My demons don’t sleep. And when you fire me… I’ll find a way to reinvent myself. Again. But you need to understand, I’m not an idealistic kid anymore. I learned the value of human lives and pulled my head out. When you do make your final decision, consider the person I am and weigh it against the person you think I was.”

  Chadha sounded more tired than mad when she next spoke. “There are a lot of crimes hung around your neck.”

  “I don’t plan to make excuses for what I did as a sixteen year old kid. It was unconscionable. And when I realized that, I got out,” Nala said.

  “I’d like to know how you got in.”

  Nala took a deep breath and considered where she’d have to start to tell that story. She settled on a simplified version of the truth. “Family business.”

  As soon as she said it, Chadha turned to her with a look that told her she wouldn’t get away with anything that cryptic.

  A loud “Hey,” from her left stopped the words on her tongue.

  “There you are!” Elodie grabbed Nala by the wrist and pulled her down a bisecting corridor. “The aspersion hub needs your attention and we couldn’t find you.” She turned sharply back to Chadha and said, “This situation needs to be rectified. I don’t like being dependent on someone to get down there.”

  “Once things calm down, we’ll get the permissions sorted, the dampening ring off and everything will go back to normal.” Chadha’s promise sounded hollow in the tremor-damaged hallway.

  Stepping over rubble and avoiding the clumps of people heading back to their jobs, Nala pulled her hand free of Elodie’s grip and set to work on her tablet, sending an internal message to Angela. She knew the incendiary specialist would forward it along to her team as soon as she got near enough to a transmission tower for the notes to upload to her tablet.

  “What was that?” Chadha glared at the device, her tone accusatory.

  “I
sent a note to the local server, letting the bomb team know I’d finished my check and found nothing. That way they don’t waste time doubling over what I did.”

  Fifty feet in front of them, the doors to the lift opened and Partner Turan stepped out, brow creased as she glanced down the corridors to her left and right. Nala waited as Chadha and Elodie chattered angrily behind her. When Turan caught sight of them, her dismay turned to determination.

  Turan hurried toward them, joining their fast moving group. “We need to deal with our communications issues. The longer we allow ourselves to remain out of contact, the more likely it is we’ll be in real trouble.”

  “You don’t think bombs, power failures, and tremors are real trouble?” Nala asked, her tone more flippant than she meant it to be.

  “I’m being optimistic that these things won’t spell our demise.” Turan’s scowl was anything but the hopeful visage she might have attempted.

  “As soon as I’m done with the aspersion hub, I’ll head straight outside.” Nala glanced over her shoulder and added, “I’ll leave it up to Chadha to decide who gets to join me out there.”

  They stepped into the lift and Chadha punched the button for the hub level but said nothing.

  The brief moment of silence hung around them awkwardly. Nala took perverse joy from their discomfort.

  “I’ll go,” Turan said when the silence had gone on too long to break fluidly. “We need that antenna array back up and running. If nothing else, we must resume contact with the other colonies… in the event we are faced with a full scale evacuation.”

  The very idea made Nala’s skin prickle with an unwanted dread.

  “It will not come to that.” Chadha’s vehement tone echoed off the lift walls as they descended. “We can fix this, and we will.”

  Before Nala could speak, Elodie shook her head and spoke with more authority than she’d ever heard from the Partner.

  “Don’t let your pride take our colonists’ lives. I don’t care if you want to fight to the bitter end to save the colony. I will stand next to you if it comes to that, but Turan is correct. We are tasked with protecting these people. Refusing to evacuate them when necessary will do more harm than the destruction of our home ever could.”