by Sam Renner
“You guys get back to your units. I’ll sort the rest of the folks here.”
The soldiers leave and Lebbe helps the few people remaining on the main floor to find their way then heads to the middle of the room. He lays down on one of the benches there and looks up to the top of Zulu’s main dome. It feels like it’s a mile away, and, from this angle, everything looks different. Without Zulu’s hum it feels different too. Like this isn’t the place he’s spent the last year and a half. These aren’t the same benches and plastic plants that he’s passed dozens and dozens of times each day.
He knows it’s just a matter of familiarity. If someone were to get off a ship right now this would feel fine. It’d seem normal. But because he doesn’t leave, because this place has him trapped here, he knows when something’s wrong. Part of him, a very small part--something pea-sized in the middle of this chest--feels bad for Zulu. This isn’t how she’s supposed to go out. There’s nothing respectful here, nothing regal or honorable about this kind of death. It’s just the wobbling of a slowing top. It’s awkward for a moment and then it’s just … over.
His earpiece crackles, and he sits up.
“Jim.” It’s Grey. “We need you.”
There’s no time for this now, no time for this wallowing in what feels inevitable. He has work to do.
TWENTY-TWO
Grey and Keith are talking when Lebbe comes back in to Zulu’s control Room. Grey is leaning over Keith’s shoulder watching him work on his terminal. He’s still typing away at the keys. That seems to be all this guy does is type away at the keys.
Lebbe speaks before either of them acknowledge that he’s come into the room. “I know we’ve covered this, but tell me again what you think's going on?”
Grey stands up and turns to Lebbe. “We don't know.”
Keith turns his chair to look at Lebbe as well. “Yeah, we just don't know.”
“We really think it’s someone in our systems?”
Keith: “Honestly? I don't. It can't be. The security on these stations is just too tight. Someone from the outside has to have a way in if they wanted to do all of this.”
“So not probable, but possible?”
Keith considers that for a moment. “Sure. That works. Is it possible that somebody somehow hacked their way into our systems? Yes. Do I think it's probable? Not in a million years.”
“But it has to be someone,” Grey says. “Has to be. Because stations don't just do this. They don't die.”
“Ok. So if it is someone,” Lebbe says, “then who is it?
“We thought it was you,” Grey says.
Lebbe doesn't understand. “What do you mean you thought it was me?”
“We didn't know where you were or why you were gone. Honestly, we still don't.”
“You still think it’s me?”
“You haven’t given me reason to rule you out.”
Lebbe looks at Keith. Keith shakes his head subtly. He hasn't given up Lebbe’s secret.
“Ok, to clear my name,” Lebbe says, “I'll tell you. My daughter is missing. She’s part of a couple of groups back on Earth. She’s involved in the protests. Deeply involved, it turns out. And now she's gone. I got a message from her mom that she hasn't seen her in weeks.”
Lebbe stops. He looks away from Keith and Grey. “I feel helpless, and I feel lost. I want to do something. I have to do something. And a thing I can do is detective work. Even if I'm thousands of light years away, I can still help somehow.”
He looks back to them.
“So I asked Keith to give me the raw feeds from all the networks that are beaming things to Zulu. Where I've been is watching those feeds. Yes, it means I've been neglecting my other duties, but I don't care.”
Lebbe pauses. Emotion is about to get the better of him. He’s kept it controlled up until now. But here now, telling this all to someone else. Hearing it out loud, it’s becoming too much. It’s like this bubble that’s moved from his gut. It’s in his chest now and still moving north.
He swallows hard trying to pushing back down. It doesn't work. He slows his breathing, deep ins and outs to try and stop its rise. It still comes. The tears well, then the tears fall. Lebbe turns away. He puts a hand to his face and wipes his cheeks.
A deep breath and the tears stop. He'll call this one a win.
"I'm sorry, Jim. I didn't know."
"Of course you didn't."
"But you had to shoot up my station?"
"I was trapped. All the power was gone in the rings. Air too. I didn't get out of there I was dead."
"Sorry, again, Jim. I didn't know."
Before Grey can finish speaking Lebbe says "Of course you didn't."
“Let me know if there’s any way I can help.”
“Appreciate that,” Lebbe says. “But I feel like we have bigger issues right now.”
“No,” Grey says. “Not bigger. Just different.”
“More immediate,” Keith offers.
Lebbe walks down the steps to the lower floor of Zulu’s main control room. He pulls a rolling chair out from under a desk and takes a seat. He puts his feet up so his heels are resting on the platform above him where Grey stands.
“So,” he begins, “if we think it’s possible--” he looks to Keith, “Not probable but possible, who’s the person who probably would do something like this?”
Keith: “Are we worried about motive?”
“For now, let’s say no.”
Grey: “The what about Frank?”
“I don’t think he’d have the smarts to do it, no offense. Plus, and I know I said no motives, but he just doesn’t make sense. He came here to make his fortune. Why’d he want this place offline?”
“He came here by choice,” Grey says, “but his kids didn’t.”
Lebbe’s eyes light up and he points to Grey nod. “Now that’s a theory.”
“I don’t know any of his kids very well,” Grey says. “So it’s possible, but are they probable?”
Lebbe thinks for a moment and his face sags. “I can’t say for certain, and this is shit detective work, but I doubt it. I’m sure they have the know-how, but I just don’t think they’d do it. I’ll put them on a list to come back to if we need to.”
He reaches in and pulls his datapad from his pocket. He activates the screen and quickly starts making a note
“Who else can I add here?” Lebbe shakes his datapad above his head so the two on the platform above him can see it.
Keith: “Someone from the convenience store?”
Grey: “Four month contracts. Those folks are in and out.”
Keith: “Look, I’ve conceded that it’s possible someone could be in Zulu’s systems and playing with us. But that’s as far as I can go. This isn’t someone on some other ship or some other station coming in from the outside. It has to be someone on this station.”
Lebbe and Grey look to each other. Lebbe stands. It’s dawning on them at the same time.
‘The pilot,” Lebbe says.
“It may not be her, but if we’re talking about probable and possible, she definitely fits the latter category.”
“We have to talk to her.”
“And that’s all we’ll do, right Jim? Talk.”
Lebbe doesn’t hear her. He is already two steps back up the platform when she starts talking. He’s out the door when she finishes.
+++++
Maldonado swipes his card in front of the door lock and heard the mechanism inside disengage. He pulls down on the handle and opens the door.
On the other side he finds Malvaughn. He’s closing the top of a bag and has another over his other shoulder. He’s leaving.
“Where are you headed?”
Melbourne pauses. He looks at Maldonado. “We're good to go.”
“Good to go as in leave?”
“Yep. Done here.”
“Were you gonna tell me?”
“I just did. I was waiting for you to return.”
Maldonado doesn't res
pond. He lets the room fill with awkward silence for a moment and then another.
“Let me get my bag.”
He'd kept everything packed as neatly as he could so it only took a moment for him to come back with his bag over his shoulder.
Malvaughn begins to speak in jumbled sentences that sound like they're just spilling out of his mouth as soon as I can figure out the words. He stops talking for a second. He collects himself.
“I got the message a bit ago. She said everything was complete on this phase of the operation. Time to return Zulu to normal and then meet at the rendezvous point. I was gonna leave you a note.”
Maldonado looks down at the desk. He looks across at the small kitchenette and the empty countertop there.
“Yeah,” he says. “Seems like it.”
“But now that you're here …”
“Now that I'm here, we can go.”
TWENTY-THREE
"It's too quiet," Grey says. She and Lebbe have just exited the elevator onto Zulu's main floor. Without the hum of its systems, Zulu feels off. The silence is noticeable. But it’s more than that. Zulu’s main floor is empty for probably the first time since the station went online. There were always people here, no matter when you came down. It could be the middle of the night. The Quickstop could have been closed. The convenience store too. But there’d still be people out on the floor. It’d be some kid who hadn’t figured how much he’d need to get himself out to the asteroid he’d hoped to mine. He’d be busted out and sleeping on the benches in the middle of the floor.
Even though there were signs warning that sleepers will be kicked off Zulu posted throughout the station, Grey was a bit of a softy. She didn’t require that Lebbe boot anyone off of Zulu. Not that he would have done it anyway, but Lebbe appreciated that she’d never asked.
“I don’t think I like it,” Lebbe said. “It’s … weird.” He’d wanted a better word. He’d wanted something that conveyed just how strange this felt, but weird was the only thing his brain gave him.
“No,” Grey says,. “It’s eerie.”
Yes. That’s the word. It’s the one I wanted.
Lebbe nods. “Very eerie.”
“Not just this.” Grey waves her arm in a sweeping arc that covers all the space of the main room. “But all of it. The whole situation. I just feel …”
“Violated.” Lebbe says it with confidence, like it should be obvious.
“That’s the word,” Grey says.
“Happens all the time when you’re a victim of a crime."
They get to the center of the floor and Grey stops.
"I wouldn't call us victims of anything," she says.
"Why not? Because nothing's missing? No one is hurt?"
"I mean …"
"Something is missing. Someone has gotten into someplace they aren't supposed to be able to get into. They've done things they aren't supposed to be able to do. We have absolutely been violated. Our sense of safety is gone. Things that we thought were absolutes aren't anymore."
"I suppose you're right. How I see things, how I see this place, well, it's…"
Lebbe puts up a finger to get Grey to stop. She pauses, only to continue a second later.
"... it's different now."
Lebbe holds a hand up this time. "Shhhh. Stop. Stop."
"What?"
"Listen."
Lebbe closes his eyes and concentrates.
"What am I trying to hear?" she asks.
Lebbe waits then points to the top of Zulu's dome. "There. Did you hear it?"
He keeps pointing to the dome.
"There. … And there."
Grey is shaking her head. What she's missing are the clicks. They are the sounds of systems cycling back on, of Zulu coming back to life.
When this room is full, they are little background noises that are imperceptible. But now, with the room empty, they're there. They're still quiet, but they are there.
“It’s Zulu. She’s turning back on.”
“Turning back on?” And as she asks that the air handler comes all the way back. They can hear the air whooshing back into the room. A moment later, it’s not just the reserve lights that are illuminating the main floor.
Grey activates her earpiece and calls for Keith. A moment later he responds.
“What the hell?” she asks.
“I don’t know. I can’t explain it. Everything just … powered back up.”
“You and Rebecca didn’t do anything?”
“I wish we had. Then I could explain it.”
“OK, thanks. See if you can figure out something.” She clicks her earpiece off and recounts Keith’s side of the conversation to Lebbe.
“Stations shouldn’t just shut down,” Lebbe says. “But they sure as hell don’t just come back to life. Someone’s doing this.”
“We need to talk to our pilot.”
Lebbe takes off for the medical bay first; Grey follows right behind. Zulu feels normal again. Its hum is back. All of the notes building their chord. It puts an ease in Lebbe’s soul, makes his insides calm. It gives him a focus that he didn’t even realize he was missing.
He’s running over scenarios in his mind as they walk. Could she do this? Why would she do this? What did she want? What’s the benefit to her if Zulu is made inactive? Is she working with someone who’d want Zulu taken out.
He’s lining up the list of questions in his head. He’s going to be the bad cop. It won’t feel like that at first, not right away. But it’s where the whole thing will head. He knows it. He starts to think about the answers she’s given them in the past. Or, better, the lack of answers. It now all feels like an act, like someone playing dumb and letting the authorities help her build her alibi.
They get to the doors of the medical bay and Grey goes to scan them in. Lebbe stops her.
“Look,” he says. “Let me ask the questions. I have experience with people like this.”
“People like what, Jim?”
“Criminals. Bad guys.”
“We’re just here to see if she knows anything.” Grey runs her card past the scanner and the doors slide open.
“She knows things. She knows everything. I promise it.”
He leads the way down the hall. The light is still coming from the room at the far end. Grey lags behind by a step. They can hear the sound of a screen playing something. Lebbe gets to the door first, and he stops short. Grey joins him a moment later. They both stare into the room, speechless.
Their pilot is gone.
+++++
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