Eternals Among Us: Book one

by Larry W. Miller Jr.

  In the end, she did not know what system had been attacked, but she knew who did it. She hadn’t taken all that long to find the culprit either. He had made no effort to hide the records. There had been no security tags on the video and no deletions were present. He had boldly gone in and done his work. It was confusing for the young woman. She would research Dominic a bit more and find out what he was doing. She needed to know everything about him now. He was a threat to the ship as she understood it. Someone in authority would be grateful for her due diligence, that much she was certain of. She suppressed a smile.

  “Take it easy girl.” She whispered to herself. “You’re not safe at home yet.” She reminded herself in her thoughts. Then she started working her way home. She was working on her student persona. She was asking questions and pointing out things she most likely knew about already. Nobody paid her a second glance. She was gone before they all knew it anyway.

  Once home, Tina decided to wind down. She had music running in her ears and the vid wall was playing scenes from a beach. The beach was spectacular with its golden sand and sparkling bits. The water was a flushed purple and trees that seemed to tower into the sky had giant fronds on them that could shadow a small party. The waves rolled up and down the beach in a chorus of tranquility. These images were from one of the worlds that was colonized about a hundred and fifty years ago on their journey. This was a very popular channel. It represented hope of a land to call their own. It represented a paradise that was not out of reach, but fully accessible. It represented why they were out here in the first place. Those colonists had been the luckiest recorded so far on this generations-spanning voyage.

  Of course, to Tina it didn’t seem real. It did not match the beaches recorded of Earth. Those beaches were all polluted now and would not even compare to the ones she was watching. That was the problem with recordings, you never knew if the place still looked like this. What if the colonists had simply repeated the failures of the human race on Earth? Had they polluted this new paradise like the one they had polluted before? She would never know. There were regulations in place to prevent that catastrophe. But if society broke down, those regulations would not be worth the pad screen they were displayed on. But if they had learned and grown from the experience, then the people could keep this wonderful paradise pristine and gorgeous like she hoped they would. Hope, which was the driving force to all of mankind’s dreams. Hope was why they were in space in the first place. Hope to cheat the fate they had forged for themselves and their kind. Hope that a new future could be written that didn’t end in suffocation and obliteration. Nuclear weapons had been banned too, but still had been used when the situation could be solved more simply with them. It showed that not all people held to the ideals that had been preached to them. The dangerous precedent not only suggested that under the right circumstances, people could slide back into bedlam, but that hatred could still doom the whole race as it once had. The concept was scary enough. The fact that the history records showed the casualties as well as the victors underlined the seriousness of the lesson that needed to be learned was not lost upon the teenager. She wanted a good life and more. She wanted the human race to continue into a glorious golden age across the stars. Could they survive long enough to accomplish that? She was one of the ones trying to find out.

  Tina was ready to fall asleep when the door chimed. She looked up angrily, disturbed from her contemplative mood.

  “Who is it?” She shouted at the door. It chimed again. A mixture of fear and curiosity filled her, but the fear won. She had just given away the fact that she was here. She was angry at herself for that realization. How could she have been so stupid? Still, there wasn’t anything to be done about it now. She could either wait for whoever it was to leave, if they would leave, or she would have to open the door and see who it was. She was still deciding when the light on the door changed. That meant that someone had overridden the lock! Tina dove for a bat that she had close by. The fear she had was turning to anger quickly.

  The door slid open. The man behind it started. “Oh, I’m sorry.” He said holding up his hands as he eyed the teenager with a bat. “I came to adjust your communications box.” He explained quickly. He pointed to the emblem on his coveralls. “See, I’m from the company.” He added. The emblem was that of the ship itself. How it had been labeled a company was still beyond Tina’s understanding.

  “I didn’t report an outage.” She replied, still holding the bat defensively.

  The man nodded. “Uh, no. That’s not how we do business. The computer has identified a fault and your communications box is about to fail. If I replace it now, there will be no outage to report.” He tried to explain.

  “Show me the replacement box.” Tina pressed. “Show me that you are who you say you are.” She added.

  “Oh, I can see we’re going to have a problem here.” The man said. He reached behind himself and pulled out a box. It was a small box, only a few centimeters across. He popped open the lid and a communications box was inside. The wiring was ready to plug in. The device looked brand new.

  Tina shrugged. “Okay, you can install it.” She relented. “But I’m going to keep my eye on you.” She added menacingly.

  “Look, I’m just doing my job, don’t hit me with that.” He said. His voice didn’t crack but his tension sounded high.

  Tina got the feeling that she was just being paranoid. She lowered the bat a bit and relaxed her stance ever so slightly. The man suddenly moved like lightning. He struck the bat with some kind of club that extended as he drew it.

  “You show promise, but you are too trusting.” He said as he clocked her across the temple. Tina went down in a flash and her last act was to swing the bat at the man’s knee. It collided remarkably well considering the half-hearted swing. They were both lying on the floor, Tina knocked out, the man holding his shattered knee.

  “You bitch!” He screamed at her.

  “She was too much for you?” Another voice said. The fake maintenance man looked up and cringed.

  “She got in a lucky shot.” He replied, now come and fix this.” He demanded.

  “Sorry, medical isn’t my specialty. I came for her.” The man said. His one mechanical leg made a lot of racket as he trudged around the fallen agent. He eyed the room carefully and then he picked up the bat. The agent screamed just once as it came down on his head, making a mess of the carpet and the wall behind him. Then the maintenance man dropped the bat onto the floor and scooped up Tina. He inspected the bruise on the side of her head and shook his head in response with a tsk, tsk sound.

  “Sloppy work.” He said to himself. “I’ll get you seen to young lady.” He said and then he and Tina were gone. The agent was left dead on the floor and the door was left open for the world to see. It was a shame that he had framed Tina for the kill, but a job was a job. This young lady needed looking after and that agent had been too incompetent anyway. It solved two problems at once. Now that was good work.

  ∆ ∆ ∆

  Hostage Crisis…

  Tina felt pain. Her hands were tied behind her back and her shoulders ached. The side of her head hurt and her eye on that side was not happy either. It was dark. She was lying on a metal deck and the parts of her on the steel were cold. She wondered if she could push herself up, but how much room did she have here? There was no indication of anything here. No lights for a door. No blinking access node for a terminal. Was she in a closet? No, a closet door would have a light to help guide you out. This place had nothing. If she could wave her hand in front of her face, she knew she couldn’t see it. The temperature in the room was standard, at least she had air to breathe. But that was all she could tell. Oh, and gravity worked here as well. So, she wasn’t in the center of the ship. What had she done? Her mind was foggy.

  The image of the intruder came back to her in a flash. She had hit him in the knee as he hit her in the head. That explained the pain in her head. She would rub the affected area if she could reach it
. Had he kidnapped her? She was just defending herself in her home.

  The memory of her recent experiences came back as well, slowly at first. She had been researching who was sabotaging the ship. Yes, that was what had brought the intruder down upon her. So, he had taken her, it was pretty obvious now. A sudden chill ran through her. This man had access to everywhere on the ship! She could be anywhere, and nobody could stumble across her because they did not have access in the first place. She could be lost, totally lost.

  Footsteps came from the distance, but they didn’t sound normal. One foot sounded metallic. She remained perfectly still, not wanting to find out who it was. Had the man already replaced his leg from her knee hit? That sounded incredibly unlikely. Who had access to medical that fast? No, this was somebody else. Could it be her rescuer? Hope began to surge in her mind, and she forced it back down.

  “Stay focused.” She reminded herself. The door opened and the light from the other side was blinding.

  “Sorry, I’ll get that.” A husky voice said. “Lights to fifteen percent.” He said aloud and the lights dimmed to a tolerable level. The man, for it was a big husky man, stood in the doorway looking rather weathered. He wore coveralls, maintenance coveralls. He knelt down beside her.

  “I’m sorry for the treatment, but you had to be restrained until we can figure out what to do with you. You are a wanted person now.” He said. The look of confusion on Tina’s face must have caused him a moment of pleasure. “You don’t remember? You clubbed that guy in the head. I didn’t think you had it in you, but his body was recovered by the police a few hours ago.” He said.

  Tina was in shock. She hadn’t hit the man in the head, she had hit him in the knee. She could remember nothing else but the feel of the carpet as it slapped her face. Had she hit him again?

  “I… I couldn’t have done that.” She said meekly.

  “Oh, little mouse, don’t underestimate your power. That bat was a lethal weapon.” He moved away from her a bit and sat down. The low light was just allowing Tina to see shapes in this room. The maintenance man noticed. “Lights to fifty percent.” He commanded and the lights in the other room adjusted accordingly.

  The room they were in was very much like a closet, but there was nothing stored in it except her. Well, and two chairs, a small table and a large window on one wall. From the movies she had seen, this was an interrogation room. The window would be one-way glass. It was just so obvious.

  “Can I sit up?” She asked. If this man was going to attack her, he was taking his sweet time about it.

  “Oh, sure, I’m sorry. I will free your hands if you promise not to run. If the authorities catch you before we figure things out, then you are lost as an asset.” He explained.

  Tina managed to sit up rather quickly even without her hands by spinning her torso and nearly launching vertical. She was looking at the maintenance man now. She was making out the line of his face. He was smiling at her.

  “An asset?” Tina asked. “I’m nobody’s asset.” She shot back defiantly.

  “Of course you are, everybody is somebody’s asset. Whether it be the government, or the resistance or even the system. Somebody relies upon you for something and that makes you their asset. Just like your friend.” He said.

  Tina’s jaw clenched. “What have you done with them?” She asked.

  The maintenance man’s hands went up palms forward. “Nothing, I swear. Your friend has signed up with us now. He tried so hard not to tell you. He’d be upset if he knew that I spilled the beans.” He said with a slight chuckle.

  “Which friend works for you?” Tina replied in askance.

  “Oh, you are brighter than that, you already know.” He said in riposte. “Now, do you promise not to run? I mean, this really is for your own good.” He said to her in the friendliest voice he could muster.

  “Yes, there are things I need to know, and you seem to be fairly well informed.” Tina replied.

  The maintenance man was satisfied. He moved over and unbound Tina’s hands. Then he tossed her a nutrition bar as she rubbed her wrists. “I am truly sorry about the treatment; I do not normally entertain anybody down here.” He offered.

  Tina nodded. “Where, exactly, is here?” She asked.

  The winked at her. “Not far from home, but the path back is one you will not be familiar with.” He replied cryptically. “We’ll need to lay low for a while. We have everything we need to live down here for some time. I hope we come to a resolution before too long though. I still have work to do.” He explained.

  “You seem to be quite familiar with me, do I know you from somewhere?” Tina pressed. She realized that running would do her no good. This man knew all of the access ways. He would have to leave for her to have a chance to explore and find her way out. However, if she could figure out who he was and who he worked for, she just might crack the case she was working on. She had gotten too close and they had captured her for it. She would bet on that much.

  “Actually, I recently met you and your friends. You were sneaking around in my corridors. The cameras caught all four of you. Did you think we’d have no security in place?” He asked now, amused.

  “We were no threat. On the contrary we were…”

  “Investigating unusual maintenance reports. I know.” The maintenance man replied. “Those were my reports.” He added. You kids were quite clever to get to the source of the problem so quickly. That’s what raised all the alarms around here. If you could breech us, then anybody could.” He continued. He seemed to be quite comfortable with the young woman he had abducted. It seemed out of place considering he had asserted that she already killed someone.

  “Are you allowed to tell me your name?” Tina asked. The man’s brows furrowed. “It could get tiresome saying burly maintenance guy every time I address you. I just need something shorter.” She complained.

  “I can give you a name, but it won’t be a real one.” He replied, “Just call me Roy.”

  “Okay Roy, I’m Tina.” She introduced herself cordially. “I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but the circumstances are not indicative of that are they?” She said and the last bit was bitter cold.

  “Look I’m sorry I had to take you away. I really am. I’m no babysitter. I’m no nursemaid. I’m just a maintenance man who got stuck with a person that didn’t fit where they belong.” He said.

  Tina was getting angrier as he spoke. “Stop treating me like a child. I am old enough to work and old enough to make my own decisions.” She said.

  “…and old enough to get into adult-sized trouble. Point taken.” Roy replied and Tina settled back down again. He was right on that point after all. No matter what happened next, she was old enough to have to deal with the consequences.

  “Oh, and where do you come off telling me I don’t fit where I belong?” Tina pressed; her indignation was flaring. “I am a person who makes her own life. I don’t just follow the herd. I followed the lead I discovered and I…” She paused, not sure just how much her captor really knew. “anyway, I did what was called for. Now I am here for my troubles.” She declared.

  “I know it isn’t fair. If I get the word to let you go I will. But I very much doubt it. The police will not let a murderer go just because she happens to be a pretty girl.” Roy said.

  “I’ve never killed anyone.” Tina protested. Her voice cracked with emotion on the short statement. “I… I never meant to harm anyone, but he was coming at me. It was self-defense.” She added in support.

  “Of course it was. The big scary intruder had it coming.” Roy replied with just a hint of sarcasm. “Just face it, you are trouble. You stick your nose in where it doesn’t belong. You brandish a weapon when approached and you find yourself in hiding to avoid police persecution.” He said, ticking off his points on his fingers.

  “I am not in hiding! I am a captive.” Tina retorted.

  “While technically true, the reason you are a captive is because you didn’t realize you needed to hide. I
am not trying to hurt you. On the contrary, I’m trying to protect you until someone with way more authority than me decides what is to be done with you.” Roy explained. “I’m not the bad guy here.” He stated flatly.

  “Look, the last time I heard, kidnapping someone was against the law.” Tina replied hotly. “No matter the justification you feed yourself, the truth is you abducted me and brought me to this unfamiliar place.”

  “You are a clever one girl, but the simpler truth is that if I hadn’t brought you down here, and we are down, then you would be in a jail cell about now.” He informed his hostage.

  “Don’t sound all high and mighty. You picked on a young girl and carried her away with you. What does that say for your morals?” Tina injected.

  “Oh, so we’re talking about morals now. Let’s see…” Roy said scratching his chin. “Who was in the forbidden corridors? Who was it that had to hide away in café after café in order to get home after stumbling across information better left alone?” Roy asked, putting all of his cards on the table.