She took a seat on the floor in the corner of room and closed her eyes. Patricia must have fallen asleep, though she wasn’t sure when it had happened. Someone shook her awake.
With groggy eyes, she looked up to Troubalene standing over her. “Glad to see you’re still alive.”
“Thanks for the camera thing. Did it cost you anything?”
“Just my soul. I’ll buy another.” Troubalene took a seat on the edge of her bed. “John took the man up to Xana. Unfortunately it was too late. He passed as well.”
“Who was it this time?”
“Barney Ellis, our ship navigator. I’m not liking the combination of crew members he’s choosing to kill. Nor am I liking how quickly this disease seems to take hold of the individual. Xana’s been able to identify that from the time of injection to the time of death, it takes a total of ten minutes. That’s all. That’s hardly enough time to get to the elevator and up to her floor, if she were able to do something about it. Xana’s working hard on an antidote and possibly a vaccine for whatever he has created. I’m not holding my breath.”
“She’s the best doctor I know.”
“She’s the only doctor you know.”
“Xana is more than capable of pulling off whatever she wants. Unlike myself.” Patricia sighed. “Did you talk to Xana at all?”
“Briefly.” Troublene scowled. “I hear you ran into Lance. You’re lucky he didn’t just kill you, too.”
“Did you hear how he ended it? The coward.”
Troubalene shook her head. “Xana neglected to tell me any details.”
“Well I was kicking his ass pretty good until he somehow deactivated the lights for the entire fourth level, but only the fourth level. It was pitch black and somehow he managed to get away. Unlike myself, who stumbled around in the dark until the lights came back on.”
“That’s interesting. Did he use that tattoo?”
“Yeah. He hit his chest a few times. That thing is obviously more powerful than I had anticipated. Maybe it will be a bit more difficult to get rid of him.”
“You think? Perhaps we should focus on disabling his tattoo somehow.”
“To do that, we would have to know how it works first. And I do not.”
“Well I don’t know anymore about it than you do. It turned the lights out so it must have some sort of electronic component to it. Maybe a good shock could disable it.”
“A great shock could take care of him altogether,” Patricia said under her breath. “Are you sure that you really need that thing from the seventh level? I feel my talents would be better suited for the Lance issue.”
“I do not disagree with you, but if you get what I have asked from the seventh level it’s going to help. Trust me.”
Patricia shook her head. “Fine. But how am I going to do any of that? There’s a manhunt for me, despite the fact that they don’t know it’s me. The captain will make the connection sooner or later.”
“I’m not sure what it is about the captain that seems to annoy you, but he can be trusted.”
“That’s funny. He doesn’t trust John or me. Never has.” Patricia threw her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. “You wouldn’t happen to have a tablet I could use. I left the one Xana had me using back in her room.” Patricia waited for an answer, when she felt Troubalene slap her on the side of the head. Patricia sat back up and opened her eyes. “What was that for?”
“You left that sitting in there? Was it out in the open?”
Patricia shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Troublene jumped off the bed and started toward the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Damage control. Don’t leave this room until I give the all clear.”
“And how will I know when you give the all clear?” Patricia held out two empty hands.
Troubalene turned around and pointed to her dresser. “Top drawer. Oh, if my husband shows up, don’t tell him who you really are. I’ll get around to it eventually. Make something up, you’re good at that.”
“Um, thanks.” Patricia was alone again. She stood up and raided the top drawer of the dresser to find the hidden tablet. Then, flipping it over and over again in her hands, she debated her next move. Should she call John? Maybe Xana? Maybe it was much better to sit there and wait it out. She hated staring at the door, hoping to see a friend come through and not a guard or the captain or even Troubalene’s husband, who she would have to lie to.
After twenty minutes, she couldn’t take it any longer. She was growing restless and needed to get out of the stuffy room, search or no search. So she was making her way to the door when it opened and John walked in.
“You weren’t thinking about leaving were you?”
She looked away from him. “Have you come to tell me something useful?”
“I just wanted to let you know what’s going on.”
“You could have called instead.” She held up the tablet and turned back to face him again. “Did you happen to run into Troubalene? I don’t know where she went.”
“No. I didn’t know what you were using to communicate at this point. The captain is up on deck, in case you were wondering, and Xana is doing damage control. She’s making sure they know that you didn’t kill the individuals, just helped to deliver the bodies.”
Patricia nodded. She took a seat on the floor, beside the dresser again.
John walked across the room and did the same.
“I never really wanted to come on this trip,” Patricia said. “I thought we were being stupid to put so much faith in something that had, at best, a fifty-fifty shot of working.” She paused for a minute to let John say anything if he wanted. But only silence filled the room. “But, other than the Lance fiasco, it’s not been a bad journey. I just hope that we’re prepared for whatever lies ahead.”
“You and me both.”
“Maybe you should go. I think they might get suspicious if you spend too much time in Troubalene’s room.”
John smiled. “The risk, sometimes, is worth the reward.”
Patricia smiled too. She stood just as the door opened again and a balding middle-aged man walked in covered from head to foot in different colored stains. He frowned the moment his eyes met Patricia’s.
“Who are you?” he asked.
Patricia extended a hand. “You must be Kitty’s husband. She’s told me so much about you. I’m Amelia and this is John. He works up on the first level doing something technical. Sorry to invade your space like this. She stepped out for just a moment and I’m waiting on her to come back. John here dropped by to say hi. But he was just leaving.” Patricia glanced back at John with a smile. “Thanks, I’ll tell her you stopped by.”
John looked at her with a confused look on his face, but he gave a curt nod. “Thank you. I’ll see you later Amelia.” He didn’t go for the door yet though.
“You know Amelia, I’ve met a lot of people on this ship. I may work in the kitchen, but I still have met nearly everyone on board. You look really familiar, but I don’t recall anyone with that name. What do you do?”
“Janitorial services. I work with the bots to keep this place nice and neat,” Patricia said with a smile. She kept her voice level and calm, trying very hard not to fidget too much. “I work mainly during the third shift, that’s probably why you’ve not seen me too much around here.”
Mister Troubalene squinted. “John, I know. You have the room right next to the captain. Don’t speak much and you don’t appear to eat a whole lot. I’m not sure how you’ve managed to keep from wasting away in this tin can.”
John shrugged. “I eat when I need to.”
“You really should strive for at least three meals a day. Especially right now. Goodness knows how long it will take to get our reserves back up after we land. We might need to go a week without anything at all to eat.” Mister Troubalene looked John up and down. “I’m not sure you’d make it that long.”
Patricia began to shift from
foot to foot. “You know, all this talk about food is making me kind of hungry.”
“No,” John said. “If you’re hungry, I can bring you something. You’re supposed to wait for Kitty, remember?”
Patricia tried to come up with a way to communicate with John without being overly obvious. Nothing came to mind. “Maybe you’re right. If that’s alright with you, I’ll just wait for your wife to come back.”
He didn’t answer. “Are you married to someone on this level? Because you live around here or you did. Did you grow up on the ship? How old are you?”
“Not too old,” Patricia said. “I was a teenager when I came on board.”
“That can’t be right. You’ve got to be in your late twenties, right?”
Patricia shook her head, feeling really confused.
“Not quite,” John said. “She’s a little over thirty. She was almost a teenager when she got on board the ship. She gets confused sometimes.”
Who was confused?
“She had me confused for a minute. So who are your parents?”
Patricia didn’t know how to answer that one. Who were her parents? Maybe if she named her real parents he’d never notice. Probably would though. She couldn’t name any of the real officers. He’d definitely know she was lying then. So who were her parents?
“Are they still alive? If this is a hard subject, I’ll completely understand.”
Patricia glanced out of the corner of her eye at John. He had that glazed look on his face that he often got when he was deep in thought. She wasn’t going to get any help from him. So she shook her head. It was better to kill them off.
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry.”
Patricia felt her heart rise back into her chest. “Thank you.”
“I think I’ll go get you something to eat and I’ll be right back.” John squeezed Patricia’s shoulder then he left.
“Kitty’s talked about you a great deal, but I don’t know a whole lot more than what you do on board the ship,” Patricia said.
“There’s not much more to tell. She and I got married really young and moved from Aries to Capena shortly after.”
Patricia smiled. “Aries? Well she’s never shared that little tidbit with me. The two of you grew up in Aries?”
“Yes we did. And I, for one, enjoyed that settlement. Capena was far too lax in some of their governmental procedures, but overall any settlement on Mars was nice. Which settlement were you from?”
Patricia hesitated. “Um…Juno.”
“Not bad. Sorry to see it end the way it did.”
Patricia nodded. She stared at him a moment, wondering what side he had been on during the war. “So are you getting excited about our impending arrival?”
“Quite excited. This should be a bit of a new adventure for us all. And there is far too much riding on our success not to be a little anxious about making sure everything goes right. It should go well if everyone does their part. What task will you receive once we land?”
“I’ll move to construction once we land. Anything to do with manual labor and the bots.” She looked at the door, willing it to open to a friendly face. It did not. “I wonder what could be taking Kitty so long.”
“That woman is always busy with work. She could leave here just to go five feet down the hall and get stuck with another work matter. I wouldn’t worry about the fact that she’s late again.” He took a seat on the bed and leaned back on his hands. “In fact, I can remember several times that she’d stop at John’s room to talk to his wife. Do you remember her? She was an odd woman. I think she was a teacher.”
Patricia shook her head. “I’m not sure that she rings a bell.” Her heart was back to her stomach, headed further south to her feet. “You know, maybe I should check on John.”
“He said he’d bring you something to eat. I’ve never known that man to lie.”
Patricia took a step backward and leaned against the wall. She concentrated on not shifting her weight from foot to foot despite how shaky her legs had become.
“You know that woman was always causing some sort of havoc on board and for some reason my wife would clean it up after her.”
Patricia guessed why Troubalene hadn’t told her husband about her yet. “That’s too bad.”
“It’s for the best that she ended up…” He paused.
Patricia looked away trying to will the door open again. Someone had to come in at any minute. Anyone. She’d take the guards at that point even. Just to not be alone with him any longer.
“What did you say your name was?”
“Amelia.”
“I don’t think so.” He stood up faster than she had expected and advanced on her.
Patricia dodged and shoved him against the wall. “Sorry. It was a reflex.”
He turned around and tried to grab her again.
“Please,” Patricia said. “I don’t want to hurt you. Your wife will be back any minute and she’ll explain everything.”
“I should have known that she would end up over her head in this matter at some point. It’s a good thing I’m here to look out for her,” he said as he reached out again.
Patricia parried away his hand and punched him in the stomach. He doubled over. She then elbowed him in the back. Down on all fours, he fell. “Please, just wait for your wife.”
“I will not let her get caught up in your mess.”
Patricia admired his commitment to his wife. It just seemed unfortunate that she was not able to convince him that she wasn’t a threat. Patricia kneed him in the face. He fell forward on the ground.
The door opened. “What did you do?” John said. The food he had been carrying fell to at his feet. “I left you alone for five minutes.”
“It was a lot longer than five minutes.” She nervously glanced behind him at the door. “I don’t know what to do. Should I leave? Do I stay?”
“Call Troubalene. She’ll figure this out.”
“I thought you might tell me to do that.” She activated the tablet and dialed up Troubalene.
“What do you want? I’m a little busy.”
Patricia examined the background to try to figure out where Kitty was, but couldn’t ascertain anything. She didn’t know how to tell her what had happened, so Patricia simply angled the tablet so that Troubalene could see her husband. “I’m really sorry, but he figured out who I was and attacked.”
“Yeah, that sounds like him. Listen, I’ll be back up there in just a few seconds. Don’t leave the room. And I see that John’s there, maybe he should leave, just for now. We don’t need someone coming looking for him and finding you by accident.”
Patricia nodded. She tucked the tablet away and looked up at John. “Don’t worry. I’ll figure something out.”
“I’ll see you later. Try not to cause too much havoc.”
“Just a little from now on, I promise.” After John had left the room, Patricia dragged Mister Troubalene over to the closet. Then she took a seat on the floor beside the dresser again, this time making sure that every part of her was invisible to the doorway. Retrieving the knife that she had tucked away inside her shoe, she pulled it out and held it tight, blade flipped open. The moment the door opened, Patricia would be ready for whoever it was.
Patricia waited, her ears straining to hear the slightest sound. Then she heard it; the door opened. Patricia slowly slid herself up noiselessly without moving any further into the room than the edge of the dresser. She waited for footsteps. None came. She was going to have to peek.
Patricia took a deep breath and peeked around the corner. No one was there. Oddly, the door remained open. The private quarter doors were not designed to do that. That wasn’t good.
She looked one final time at the unconscious husband of Troubalene and exited the room. The hall was silent. No one there at all. And, thankfully, no bodies either. Maybe it wasn’t Lance.
With the knife well out in front of her, she carefully followed the bend around to the first elevator. It was open, b
ut there was no one around. The elevator doors weren’t supposed to do that either. She looked around, the voice of John ringing in her head about how bad of an idea it was to trust something so suspicious. But there was something about the situation that intrigued her. She wanted to know where it went. Where it ended.
It was easy to get into the elevator; it was much harder for Patricia to watch the door as it closed. She stayed silent. Immediately after the door was shut, the automated voice did not ask which level she wanted. Instead she felt it move. Was she headed up? It didn’t feel like it.
The door opened again to reveal the one level she had been avoiding, the seventh level. The guard was on the ground curled up in the fetal position. His arm stretched high over his head toward the elevator. She stayed on board. It was a trap. She knew that. Would the elevator take her back up if she wanted? Probably not. How was she supposed to turn it around? She needed to surprise him, to trap him.
She took one step off and then stopped. What did he want? He wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble of luring her down there without a purpose. So what did he want? She turned back to the elevator, but the door had shut. She was sure it wouldn’t open again.
Moving forward seemed to be the only solution. She kept her head down, trying not to give the cameras a clear view of her face. It wasn’t going to save her from being discovered, but may buy her a little time. Patricia looked to the right and the left. The hall was like all other levels where it just circled around. She wondered which way he had intended her to travel.
To the left there appeared to be an open door so, sticking with the walking right into his trap theme, she turned to the left and tip-toed through the hall. The level smelled of something rotten. There was a good, fresh smell as well, but the rotten smell was slightly overpowering the good.
She stopped outside the door, flattening herself to the wall, clutching her knife tightly in her right hand.
“You can stop cowering. You came this far. Why stand out there?”
Patricia knew it was a taunt. She tried to ignore his condescending tone. With a quick glance around the corner, she ascertained that it was Lance and he was alone. From what she could tell, he didn’t appear to have a weapon. But that really didn’t matter. He controlled the entire ship with his body. She was at his mercy whether in the room or in the hall. And she was no coward.
The Oceans of Emptiness Page 22