Spindown

by Andy Crawford

  “Can you hear me, Doctor?”

  Madani blinked and grimaced, rubbing her throat.

  “It’s okay, don’t talk.”

  A pair of MedTechs rushed in and Mattoso pulled herself aside. She couldn’t help herself and cautiously approach the floating corpse — a doctor and the second batch of MedTechs to arrive were having an animated discussion about whether to attempt revival. It seemed obvious to Mattoso that it was hopeless — the hole, through the hood and into the back of the skull, was bigger than her thumbnail. It came to her that she had just killed someone — and she felt nothing. How could she feel nothing? She was a killer now. Rahmon always said that Earth’s culture of violence made monsters out of those who would, in a truly peaceful society, be decent people. Maybe this was what she meant.

  It took a moment for her to realize someone was speaking to her, a MedTech. She tersely replied that she was fine.

  Mattoso remained while the second group attempted to revive the attacker. A trio of constables entered and began recording images. What am I supposed to feel?

  “We got his identity.”

  Mattoso turned, shaken out of her reverie. It was a constable, Goodluck. “What’s that?”

  “The dead man,” said Goodluck. “We got his identity — facial recog. Senior Administrator Barth Halonen.”

  Putting a name to the corpse hit her like a loader’s strike. Why was it different with a name? She realized that she had never even considered the possibility of truly killing someone — not when joining the crew of Aotea, and not even when accepting the temporary promotion to chief inspector. She suddenly wanted to vomit. A MedTech recognized her expression and pointed her to an alcove in the lab, and Mattoso spewed her breakfast rations into a vacuum receptacle.

  The medical staff hovering around Madani’s bed jittered and nodded, their eyes wide, as their department head berated them.

  “But you probably suffered a concussion. You’d never let —”

  “Oh don’t tell me what I would or wouldn’t do! I swear, don’t I tell you that the best information about a patient’s health can be — is that Mattoso? Okay, everyone get the hell out. Give me and the lieutenant a minute.”

  They looked relieved as they left.

  “Don’t they say that doctors make the worst patients?” offered Mattoso, trying for a levity she didn’t feel.

  Madani snorted but gave the barest grin. “I’m sure they didn’t mean me. So who was it? Who tried to kill me?”

  Mattoso’s eyes went wide.

  “They didn’t tell you yet? As soon as I could I had a tech run a test on the syringe – it was the same toxin that killed Nicolescu.” Madani reached out for Mattoso’s hand. “You saved my life, you know. If you’d been a moment later, I’d be dead. It was a hundred times the fatal dose.”

  Mattoso blinked tears out of her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered. She knew she couldn’t dwell on it. That I’m a killer.

  “So who was it?”

  “Senior Administrator Barth Halonen.”

  The doctor showed no recognition in the first instant, and her eyes went wide in the next.

  “Do you know him?”

  “No, but… just a few minutes before, what I was working on — I called Halonen about a sample I was testing. He didn’t have any useful information, but…”

  “But what?”

  Madani shook her head. “He was one of just a few exceptions. A big test — dozens of crewmembers — all showing the same results, except for just a handful.”

  Mattoso looked nervously over her shoulders; of course no one else was in the room. “What kind of results?”

  “It’s about the minor complaints. Everyone who’s been coming in with stomach problems and such has tested positive for phenelzine.”

  “Phenelzine? What’s that?”

  “An old pharmaceutical. Not toxic — certainly not at these low levels… the complaints would be much, much worse if the phenelzine were close to lethal levels. Halonen and a few others were the only ones to test negative, out of almost a hundred samples.”

  “So it’s not poison, then?”

  “It doesn’t seem so. But here’s the strangest part — maybe it could be an addiction outbreak, or recreational usage, but almost everyone I’ve tested, including myself, has low levels of phenelzine.”

  “But why? What’s the drug used for?” asked Mattoso.

  “It hasn’t been used in generations, from what I could find out. Back then, it was used for depression and anxiety.”

  “Mood control?” She resisted the temptation to say mind control.

  Madani shook her head, her chin low. “I just don’t know. I can’t figure it out.”

  “Who else can we trust?”

  Madani bit her lip. “Let me think...”

  Mattoso lowered her voice. “I’ve been thinking, about common factors, for who to trust, and who not to.” ‘Who to trust?’ asks the killer… “One thing about all the conspirators so far — Singh, Gregorian, and now Halonen — their ages. They’re all over forty-five cycles. Singh just barely, but Gregorian and Halonen were almost sixty. That’s among the oldest onboard.”

  “Do you know how old I am, Lieutenant?”

  Mattoso nodded. “Yeah, I know, fifty-one cycles. But an attempted murder by a masked killer kind of absolves you.”

  “Or maybe I was a conspirator but I had a change of heart...?”

  Mattoso shrugged, tired all over. “Yeah, maybe. But either way, you’re on the right side now.” Am I?

  The doctor didn’t say anything.

  “Look, I know this is a longshot. But this thing has been long in the making, whatever it is. Age isn’t the only thing — Gregorian was from Mars, and Halonen and Singh were from Ceres. Half of our crew is from Earth, but none of the conspirators. And so far, all the conspirators have been onboard Aotea since pretty shortly after construction.” It shouldn’t be this easy, she thought, to get back into routine activities after killing another human being. Maybe there was something wrong with her. Maybe she was always this way, she just hadn’t realized it.

  “You know that I’m from the Jovian moons, right? And isn’t this kind of a small sample size, anyway?”

  “Yeah, and I’m from Ceres.” Mattoso sighed. “It’s not perfect. All I’m saying is that maybe we can raise the chances of trusting someone. So we go with young Aoteans from Earth. Especially ones that haven’t been onboard most of their lives.”

  “Alright, it’s a start.” Madani groaned a bit as she reached over for her wearable, but shooed away Mattoso’s movement to assist. A few minutes later, a youthful doctor, a lab tech, and two MedTechs entered the room.

  “Lieutenant Mattoso, this is Doctor Rana Valdez, Second Fillipe Quinn, Third Louisa Saito, and Apprentice Taka Dawn. All from Earth.”

  CHAPTER 57

  Someone tried to murder Ilsa. Konami’s heart was beating like a jackhammer and he had an overwhelming urge to open his front door and sprint for medical, consequences be damned.

  An hour earlier, he had heard the familiar burst of an Emer call from the guard’s wearables outside, and stuck his ear to the door. He hadn’t heard much, but it was enough, and very helpfully, the second guard had asked the first what was going on.

  “Attempted kill,” the first guard had answered. “Someone tried to off the head doctor. But Mattoso was there and shot ’im.”

  “Unbelievable. On this ship. What would the founders think? Are we hopeless?”

  Maybe they’d listen to reason — just let him put in quick call to Madani’s recovery room.

  He knocked on his own door. The first guard answered, dart gun drawn but pointed at the floor. His requests to call Dr. Madani were denied.

  Konami shut the door. He had no doubt that Mattoso would be taking this as seriously as she should be.

  But someone just tried to kill Ilsa. They had succeeded in discrediting Konami. Maybe Mattoso would be next.

  He looked over his shoulder a
t the door before lifting up his thin mattress and pulling out a paper notepad. He looked over his notes — guards change every six hours. One guard usually has to make a head call at the two or three-hour mark. He needed to plan. Aotea needed him. And Ilsa, she needed him too.

  CHAPTER 58

  Captain Horovitz asked for the status of the repairs, apparently more impatient than usual.

  Konrote was turned away from the screen, whispering to a GravTran tech.

  “Commander Konrote?” said the XO.

  They’d be done by tomorrow. A muffled cheer came from a handful of the department heads. Mattoso had the feeling there was a ‘but’ coming, and there was – testing the new components would take at least a week, meaning intermittent gravity at best until it was finished.

  The Mayor was next. “By now you’ve probably heard about the attempt on Dr. Madani’s life. Dr. Lassiter?”

  A mousey doctor described Madani’s injuries, which were relatively minor.

  Mattoso was next. Everyone was looking at her, but no one looked at her like she was a killer. She cleared her throat, trying to pretend everything was normal. “Dr. Madani’s attempted murderer was Senior Administrator Halonen.” She ignored the entirely expected outbreak of shocked intakes of breath, most prominently from the administrative department head. “No resuscitation was possible. We have some leads, and Dr. Madani is fully cooperating with us, but that’s all I can release right now. It goes without saying that this conspiracy is enmeshed at high levels of the command structure.”

  “So don’t trust anyone, right? Anyone could be involved? Is that what we’re supposed to take from this?” interrupted Commander Papka. Fifty-four cycles, hails from a habitat in the Belt, onboard since construction started.

  “That’s not quite all. We have reason to believe that the conspirators are more likely to be older than forty-five cycles, and more likely to hail from somewhere other than Earth. And they’ve probably been onboard the ship since shortly after construction.”

  That set off a ripple of shouting and complaints.

  “And where are you from, Lieutenant?” asked the data department head.

  “I was born on Ceres thirty-six cycles ago.”

  The complaints continued. Good, she thought. Most of the department heads were older than forty-five, most were not from Earth, and most had been onboard Aotea since long before launch. She wanted them to be confused, and suspicious. She wondered if she ever would have thought up of such a strategy before she found out that she was capable of killing someone. There could be no trust anymore, and as far as Mattoso was concerned, the department head meetings were a hindrance, rather than help, to fighting this conspiracy and saving the ship. Better that everyone be confused and suspicious, than inadvertently assist the conspirators, many of whom were present, she was certain.

  The mayor gave her a dirty look and adjourned the meeting after a brief update on the surge efforts. When Mattoso departed, the meeting had dissolved into a half-dozen hissing, bickering factions.

  Taking a slightly circuitous route, Mattoso headed for the Medical lab, checking over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t followed. The emptiness of the Cans had a surreal quality the longer they remained still, she found. There was a great tension — as if the crisscrossing guycables and even the entire surface was vibrating and ready to spring free with overwhelming violence.

  Traveling through freefall was such a serene and effortless exercise that she could almost doze, even while “climbing” down a passageway, hand over hand. She yawned and shook herself awake before entering Main Medical.

  The lab door was locked, the Constable assigned to guard it upright and alert — Mattoso knocked and announced herself and was quickly ushered in. The worktables were stacked with containers of water, stoppered and velcroed to the counters to keep from floating away. There were so many that they must have run out of standard sample flasks and started using any container they could find. Among the whirring analyzers, Madani was working frantically with Techs Saito and Dawn, and an unfamiliar Third with a Habitability badge was assisting.

  “So how was the meeting? Anyone miss me?” asked Madani as she swapped out a sample from the analyzer.

  “We may not be too far away from Spinup of the Forward Can. Konrote says testing starts soon.”

  “Awesome!” cried the new arrival.

  “Oh, hi, Lieutenant,” said Saito. “This is Rix —Third Spemann, my boyfriend. He helped us get the water samples.”

  Mattoso raised her eyebrows.

  “Don’t worry — he’s only twenty-seven cycles, and he’s from Earth.”

  She took a deep breath. “Maybe I didn’t make myself clear before. This isn’t a hard and fast rule. Right now, hopefully no one knows exactly what we’re looking for. Dr. Madani — I’ll ask for your support so that from now on, we don’t let anyone in on this without the agreement of both myself and yourself.

  Madani looked up from her work briefly. “Agreed. This goes for all of you.”

  They all assented.

  “So what’s with all the samples?”

  “Every possible input to the major water distro mains,” answered Habitability Tech Spemann.

  Quinn cut in. “If something’s been added to some of them, we’ll narrow it down.”

  “Where’s Dr. Valdez?” asked Mattoso.

  “Phenelzine,” answered Madani. “She’s learning everything there is to know about it.” The Medical department head maneuvered into a closet-sized office in the corner of the lab, gesturing for Mattoso to follow, and lowered her voice. “We’re going to have an answer soon. I don’t know if you’ve thought of what comes next, but I have.”

  Mattoso nodded. “Go ahead.”

  “We need Cy.”

  Yes! Mattoso squared her chin and agreed forcefully. “Yes, we need Cy.”

  “Further, the phenelzine might be the first real marker we have, to separate the conspirators from the rest of us. Maybe not perfect — there was one tech who only drank water straight from the purifiers. But I looked at old blood samples we had stored — the phenelzine levels started to creep up from undetectable levels, for most of the samples I have, shortly after Muahe’s death.”

  “So can we use that — look at your old samples — to figure out who’s part of the bad guys?”

  Madani shook her head. “I don’t have enough, not nearly — just a few hundred spread over the last cycle or two, from routine checks. That might give us a few names, but that’s it.”

  “We should start with that anyway.”

  “Agreed.”

  “So what next?”

  “We sample from the top. We sample the captain, and the mayor, and the Bigwigs, and all the department heads, on down.”

  Mattoso allowed herself to drift back against the bulkhead, her mouth open. “How… how the hell do we do that without them figuring out what we’re doing? We can’t exactly sneak into their quarters and take their blood.”

  “No, we can’t. Maybe—”

  They were interrupted by Valdez, fairly bursting into the lab. “I’ve got it — I know what they’re doing with phenelzine!”

  Everyone turned to look at her.

  “It’s a binary agent.”

  “What’s that?” asked Mattoso.

  “Two chemical agents that are harmless on their own, but when they react with each other in the human body, can have much more serious effects,” answered Valdez. “Phenelzine is one of them. The other could be MDMA, SSRIs, tryptophan, or one of a hundred others. Mixed together, even at low doses, they can cause organ failure.”

  I’m not the only killer onboard, thought Mattoso. It occurred to her that maybe killers were necessary to stop other killers. Somehow that was a horrifying thought.

  CHAPTER 59

  Konami pressed his ear to the door once again. Gotta be soon… One of the guards had been sipping from a drink pouch for the last few hours. He smirked at the idea of loudly pouring water from one cup into the
other, but freefall prevented that. According to the announcements, the low-speed rotation tests wouldn’t start up again for a few hours.

  Goddamn it! This guard’s bladder wasn’t human, unless they were pissing their pants. He was about to pull away from the door but he heard the scraping noises of someone approaching. He heard the voices of Madani and Mattoso. After a half minute of arguing, there was a yelp and a thud, and the door opened.

  Mattoso had an intense look on her face that he couldn’t recall seeing, and Madani was putting away a pair of syringes. The two guards were floating, motionless, in the passageway.

  Konami squeezed Madani in a brief embrace before Mattoso patted him on his shoulder.

  “Let’s get them hidden,” whispered Mattoso.

  Konami asked Madani how long they’d be out as they dragged the guards into his quarters. She said for a few hours, and then they set off.

  Konami’s eyes got wider and wider as they related their findings on the phenelzine, and their suspicions about its purpose. A second agent could be introduced by some other means, and only those with phenelzine already in their blood would be affected.

  Oh shit… “You think this is enough evidence to justify breaking me out? Damn it, Bea… they could shove us both out of the way for this, and you too, Ilsa. You should—”

  “No, Cy.” Madani cut him off. “It’s not enough evidence. But the reaction will be. Lieutenant?”

  Mattoso handed him a dart gun. “Weapons? Are you serious? What are we gonna do, fight off the whole crew? And reactions? What does that—”

  Madani sighed. “Cy, just follow along. We’re almost there. Stay quiet, and you’ll see.”

  “Right,” added Mattoso. “It’s not just the evidence. It’s the reaction. You’ll see.”

  Bewildered, Konami did as he was told, doing the best he could to cover his face the few times they passed by other Aoteans.

  Madani stopped them in front of the doors to the conference room and pulled out several small strips of paper from her medical bag. “These are the test strips that Dr. Valdez printed. Cy, you don’t have to do anything, except watch how everyone reacts. We’re going to lay out everything, in front of the department head meeting, and ask everyone to give a drop of blood for the test strips. They turn blue on a positive, but what we’re looking for is the negatives. And the ones who refuse to cooperate.”