“I’ll say,” said Seth. “Can you get me a copy of the logs?”
“Sure, but why?” she asked.
“The captain asked me to investigate, so that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll start with all the names on that list. Everyone who’s touched this file.”
“They’re mostly engineers,” said Uriel. “I know most these people.”
“So do I, but we have to stay impartial. We can’t let our personal feelings stop us from getting to the bottom of this. Understand?”
Uriel nodded and turned back to the computer. She transferred the list onto Seth’s com. “Who are you starting with?”
He pulled the list up and scrolled through it, spotting several names he recognized. They were friends and associates. He couldn’t picture any of them as a murderer. Oh well. Better to start at the end. The last person to touch the file. “Tess Rorsha,” he finally said. “I’ll work my way back from there.”
* * *
Seth went home after his meeting with Uriel. He needed some rest before he could continue investigating the incident. When he arrived at his quarters, he found Azura sleeping in his bed. Opting not to wake her, he crashed on the couch.
Lying in the dark, his mind raced with what tomorrow might bring. Earlier today, the idea of sabotage seemed all but impossible, but not anymore.
Now, he wasn’t so sure. If Uriel was right, then the video feed had been intentionally altered, and a killer could very well be living among them. How long before this person grew bored and tried again? How many more colonists would die?
Seth closed his eyes, giving into sleep. He faded quickly, drifting in a sea of dreams.
He saw the cerulean skies of Fiore, stretching far and away over a vast, green country. Alone, he walked through fields of golden wheat, wind blowing against the stalks. Kadmon Farm was near, he knew, somewhere in the valley.
Suddenly, a loud snap cackled through the sky, parting clouds and echoing. The ground shook, wildly. Towards the capitol, a great flame erupted, consuming everything around it, filling the sky with smoke. The burning metropolis raged like the sun, igniting so bright he could almost feel the heat.
Seth ran like a frightened child, trying to escape. As he neared the edge of the field, he found his childhood home atop the solitary hill. The door opened and he paused. Standing on the steps, he saw his mother, crying and holding a basket.
Behind them, the fire swarmed, blazing through the valley towards them. Seth motioned for his mother to stop, to return to the house before it was too late, but she wouldn’t listen. She ran past him, headlong into the flame—the living incarnation of death—smiling as she died, and laughing. Laughing until her skin melted and she collapsed into dust.
Seth ran inside, slamming the door behind him. The fire beat against the wood, taunting him with a whisper. “Let us in,” it said, softly.
“Go away!” he cried.
“Let us in,” it whispered. “Let us in. Let us in. Let us in.”
A girl appeared on the other side of the room. It was Azura, young and wearing the same clothes as the day they’d met. Her eyes were empty, replaced with green and red marbles. “Help me, Seth,” she begged. “I don’t know what to do!”
“Get back!” he told her.
The window nearby shattered, and the fire leapt into the room, laughing as it spread, inching towards the girl, catching on her dress. It consumed her in seconds. Screams filled the cottage home, shrieks of chaos and boiling blood.
“Come come come come,” whispered the fire. “Burn burn burn burn.”
“Stay away from me, please!” he begged. “I don’t want to die!”
“Everything dies,” whispered the living flame. “Even you. Even us. Even God.”
* * *
The alarm on Seth’s communicator woke him. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and accepted the call. “Hello?” he muttered, and coughed. His throat was dry and scratchy.
“Seth, the captain would like to see you. Please report to his office immediately,” said Lilith.
“I’m on my way,” he said.
“Acknowledged,” she said. “See you soon.”
The call ended and he sat up on the couch. With a deep breath, he got to his feet and wiped his eyes. “Azura?”
There was no answer. He peered into the bedroom, but found it empty. She must have gone to work already.
He changed his clothes, then splashed his face with some water. He’d shower on his break if time allowed. For now, he had work to do.
When he arrived at the office, he found his father working busily behind his computer. “Come in,” said Adam, motioning for him to have a seat. “Any news from yesterday?”
Seth nodded and sat down. “Yes, sir. We have some leads, but I’m still working on it.”
“What did you find?”
“The logs may have been tampered with, but we don’t know how or why. There’s no concrete evidence, but Uriel thinks there’s reason to be suspicious.”
Adam leaned back in his chair. “What do you think?”
“I agree with her. I pulled a list of names from the logs…everyone who’s touched the video feed. I’m planning on questioning each of them, starting with the most recent entry,” said Seth.
“Right,” said Adam, glancing at his computer. His eyes lingered on the screen for a while, and he sighed.
“Something wrong?”
“This couldn’t come at a worse time.”
Seth didn’t know what to say. His father looked so stressed, like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. Maybe he did. “I’ll start with the names on the log. It shouldn’t take long.”
Adam nodded. “I’d send you some help, but I’m afraid they’re all busy. Between the mission and repairs, the crew’s spread pretty thin.”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Seth. “I can handle asking a few questions.”
“You’ll keep me informed, right?”
“The second I know anything, you’ll be the first.”
* * *
Seth examined the list he received from Uriel and decided to begin at the most recent entry, Tess Rorsha. He recognized the name, but didn’t know from where. When he pulled up her profile and saw her face, he knew he’d seen her around.
She was an engineer, sticking mostly to the lower decks, which kept her under the radar. According her profile, she wasn’t scheduled to work for another three hours. If Seth hurried, he might be able to track her down before her shift started.
He left the security office and headed straight for Tess’s quarters, trying to work out which questions he’d ask first. He wasn’t accustomed to playing detective, but it couldn’t be that hard. As he neared her quarters, he took a deep breath, and tried to relax. “Here goes nothing,” he whispered to himself.
Seth buzzed the door, swiping some lint from his jacket. A moment later, a short, blonde girl with glasses answered. She had a button nose, wide eyes, and thin lips—an anxious look on her face. “Oh, my goodness. Who are you? What’s going on?” The words poured out of her.
“Hi, I’m Lieutenant Kadmon. I’m here to—”
“Kadmon? Are you the captain’s son? Goodness. Did I do something?”
“No, nothing like that,” he said, calmly. “I just need to ask you a few questions. It’ll only take a few minutes.”
“Is this about the accident yesterday?” she asked.
“What makes you think—”
“It’s so awful, isn’t it? I was on shift when it happened. I couldn’t believe it. I spent half the night running scans in the population bay. Oh, my. To think something like that could happen on our ship. It’s unbelievable!”
Seth let out a short sigh as the girl rambled on. When she finally took a breath, he seized the opportunity to interject. “According to the logs, you accessed and altered camera 225 two weeks prior to the incident. Do you mind telling me why?”
She blinked. “Uh, I don’t know, exactly.”
�
�You don’t know?” he asked.
“I’m so sorry! Cameras break all the time, so sometimes we have to make repairs. We also run maintenance checks every few months. You could be talking about one of those.”
“In other words, you can’t be sure.”
“Please understand, Lieutenant. I do this sort of thing almost every day. I’d bet I fix a camera at least once a week. Every population bay has at least a dozen active feeds going all day long, you know?”
“Sure,” said Seth.
“Anyway, what’s the problem? Did you find something in the logs?”
“We think someone altered them, but there’s no name attached to the timestamp. From what I’ve been told, it’s unusual.”
“Oh, maybe,” she said, tapping her chin.
“You have another idea?”
“Well, the logs can get buggy sometimes. You should check with anyone who was working in that section. Sometimes they can disable them accidentally while making repairs to the electrical system.”
“Alright, I will. Thanks for the suggestion.”
She nodded. “You sure you can’t tell me what this is about?”
“It’s nothing serious. It’s my job to look into security issues. It’s probably nothing to worry about.”
She adjusted her glasses. “There’s a list we keep for scheduling. My supervisor has it. She can probably tell you more about who was working in the area where the camera is.”
“Your supervisor?”
“Ariel,”’ said Tess. “I bet she can clear this up in no time.”
* * *
Seth found Ariel on the job, working with one of her subordinates on deck nineteen. She had half her body inside the wall, yelling at the other engineer. “Careful with that! I don’t feel like waiting for you to go get another from storage.”
“Sorry!” said a muffled voice from inside the compartment.
“Don’t apologize! Just stop screwing up!”
“Excuse me,” said Seth, after a moment.
Ariel popped out of the hole. “Huh?”
He nodded. “Hey, Ariel.”
“Seth? What are you doing here?”
“Sorry to bug you like this. If you’ve got a minute, I could use your help.”
She nodded. “One sec,” she said, then leaned into the hole. “Bard, you better not screw this up or it’s back to inventory for you. Understand?”
“Yes, ma’am!” said Bard.
Ariel dusted her jacket off and smiled warmly. “Alright, what can I do for you?”
“I was told you kept a list of work assignments.”
“Yeah, sure. Why are you asking?”
“I need to know who was working in a certain area during a specific time. Someone said you had the info.”
“They did, huh? Care to tell me who it was?”
“I can’t divulge my source,” he said, half-joking.
She laughed. “Fine. I might have a list. It only covers my team, though, and we’re one of six. You’d have to ask the other team leads.”
“I understand,” he said.
“Can you tell me what the reason for all this is?”
“It’s about the cameras in Security. There’s a possibility someone may have tampered with them. We’re looking into it.”
“I see…and you think it was one of my people?”
“No one’s pointing fingers.”
She scoffed. “Yeah, sure.”
He ignored the remark. “When can you transfer the assignment list?”
“Hang on,” she said, then tapped her wrist-com several times. “There. Check your inbox.”
He did, and found the list immediately.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, Seth, I’ve got some work to do.”
“Have fun,” said Seth, and watched as she crawled into the hole.
He walked a short way down the hall and stopped to check the list. It seemed to go back a full month, tracking all nine engineers under her command—every assignment they’d taken. According to the report, each engineer was assigned a specific area, with very little overlap. Tess was assigned to population bay 04, the area in question, along with two others: Edward Callis and…Cain Kadmon.
Seth stared curiously at his brother’s name. He had no idea his brother worked there. Why didn’t he say something to him after the accident? Actually, now that Seth thought about it, he hadn’t spoken to Cain since the other night, right before the explosion. Maybe with all the commotion in Engineering, his brother was simply too busy. In all likelihood, Cain was probably on a repair detail.
No matter. Seth could talk to him later. For now, he’d track this Edward Callis person down…ask him a few questions. He’d find Cain once he had more information. After all, there was no way he had anything to do with this.
Not a chance in hell.
Chapter 7
Seth found Callis working with several other engineers as they ran a sweep of one of the population bays. The assignment list was of little use today.
The bulk of Engineering was scattered across the ship, running around in search of malfunctioning equipment. Thankfully, Seth only had to ask Lilith where to find the guy, so the search didn’t take long.
Callis didn’t argue when Seth asked to speak with him. All he wanted to know was why. “So you think I accidentally corrupted the feed?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” said Seth. “Did you happen to work on the surveillance systems yesterday?”
“Nope. I was doing inventory down in Engineering. I always do my maintenance checks at the start of my shift. You know, before lunch.”
“I see,” said Seth.
“Besides, we were all off duty at that time. You’d have to talk to the guy on call for last night,” said Callis, scratching his chin.
“On call?”
“Yeah, sure. We switch off every week. It goes me, Tess, and then Cain. One of them has it this week. Let me think…” He snapped his fingers a few times, twisting his lip. “Oh! Yeah, I think it’s Cain. You should check with him about it.”
Seth stiffened at the sound of his brother’s name. “Hold on,” he said, getting the assignment list. He scanned it briefly. “I’ve got nothing here about an on-call sheet.”
“That’s because it’s not listed,” said Callis. “Ariel let’s us divide it ourselves. She says it’s better for us. You know, to learning responsibility or whatever. I think she’s just tired of assigning it. Anyway, this is Cain’s week. I’m next. You follow?”
Seth nodded. He remembered seeing his brother last night, right before the incident. He had his tools and had mentioned going to do a job. “Thanks,” Seth muttered. “I’ll let you get back to work.”
“That’s it?” asked Callis.
“I may have more questions later, but we’re good for now,” answered Seth. Without waiting for a response, he turned and left. He’d have to talk to his brother next, but what would he say? If Cain gave him reason to doubt him, it might damage their relationship. What if he slipped and said the wrong thing? Cain might take it personally and think Seth was against him. The last thing he wanted was to make Cain feel more isolated.
No, I have to do my job, Seth thought. Besides, I know him. He didn’t do anything wrong. He took a few quick breaths.
Actually, he might not have to talk with Cain at all. If he could show where his brother was during each of the blackouts, especially the one from last night, he might be able to avoid this mess altogether. There were cameras everywhere on the ship, so all he had to do was follow his brother’s movements from last night. The moment he left his room to the time of the explosion. Simple enough.
Okay, then, Seth thought. Next stop, Security.
* * *
Seth had Uriel open the feeds so he could look through them. After an hour long tutorial, he felt confident enough to go at it alone. I should have learned this stuff sooner, he thought.
“Do you really think Cain had something to do with the incident?” a
sked Uriel.
“I’m just covering everything,” he said.
“But you think there’s a chance, right?”
“Anything’s possible,” said Seth, not wanting to condemn his brother without more evidence.
“Alright,” she said. “Do you need anything else before I take off?”
“You’re heading out?”
“Adam has me helping with the mission reports.”
“Just you?”
“Azura, too,” she said.
So that’s where she’s been all day, he realized, thinking back to this morning when he awoke to find her gone. “I may need you here later. Think you can slip away?”
“Don’t worry. I’m only helping for a few hours today. Security’s my primary job. You call, and I’ll make an excuse to leave.”
“Thanks,” he said.
“Have fun,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. “See you when I’m done.”
Seth sorted through the footage of the other blackouts, starting with the first from several months ago. It occurred on deck six, section five, near a relatively empty part of the ship used mostly for storage. As the seconds ticked by on the digital clock, Seth saw what appeared to be a shadow against the hallway wall. Someone was there, moments before the blackout, slightly out of the camera’s reach. Seconds later, the feed cut off and everything went black. He reversed the feed and paused it, staring at the shadow on the wall. It was no good. He couldn’t make anything out.
Time to try another.
Seth pulled up the next incident, taking place a week later and in a different location. This time, the blackout occurred on the other side of the ship, near Medical. He watched the feed, waiting for any indication of movement. Again, he spied a shadow moving across the wall, but this time there was progress. This time, the shadow turned and stumbled, and the mysterious figure came into frame, but only for a second. Seth reversed the feed, freezing the image, trying to get a better look.
Cain appeared, dressed in his maintenance uniform. He was slightly out of focus. It could be a coincidence, Seth told himself. He’s an engineer. His job takes him all over the ship. There’s no reason to jump to conclusions.
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