Chapter Six
The Evening of January 15th
On the Starship Constellation
The evening found Tyler sat on the bridge of the Defender with Caroline on his left and Appolon on his right, and with the others completing a rough circle. They were gathered there to try to come up with a plan of action for them to take on board the Constellation.
"First of all Miss Tarraway, please tell us how Charles Bragg and his colleague are getting on." Tyler asked.
"They are both still unconscious, but at least they are not dead, and that is due to Paul Divine, he is the other agent, he woke up and called for help while trying to drag Charles to safety. Oh and by the way please call me Alice."
"And I am David Reynolds." The first officer of the Defiant said introducing himself to everyone. He was twenty-eight years of age; and was very good looking with brown eyes and matching wavy hair; he stood six feet tall.
"David, Alice, let me introduce the others here about you. You know Caroline and her brother Appolon. Next to him is Tryon, then Richard Smith, Colin Freeman, Paul Johnson and last of all Colin Ryan. Before you ask Colin, Alice I have decided that Colin Ryan here and Paul Johnson will also be coming aboard the Constellation with us, which is if the captain of the Defiant can spare you David to pilot the Defender, do you think that he will agree to that David?" Tyler asked looking toward the young officer.
"I am sure that he will agree Commander, he can hardly refuse the first request that our new Commander in this sector of space asks of him." David was also secretly delighted to get the chance to pilot this strange hybrid ship.
Tyler looked across at Colin Freeman.
"Colin I haven`t left it up to you to pilot the Orion Defender as we might need you to operate the many other devices on the Defender, should the Aldebran ship decide to do something silly."
"That`s fine Tyler, I`m feeling a little tired anyway and could do with a rest." Colin replied flippantly.
"There is a second request David, and that is can we drop in on Orion to allow our warriors to get back to their work that must be starting to pile up by now, for our crew is very much a part time one."
"I will ask my Captain, but I am sure that he will agree to that, it will only add half a day to our journey."
"Tyler I am no use aboard the Defender but can help watch your backs on the Constellation." Tryon said. Tyler smiled across at him.
"Tryon, I wondered when you would ask to join us. You are more than welcome, although it might be a little cramped up there with so many new guests." Tyler remarked before turning to Alice Tarraway.
"Alice, maybe you can fill in everyone here as to what has been happening aboard the Constellation?"
Alice then went through all that occurred on the Constellation. Then she repeated what Tom Parkinson had told her, of the happenings on Earth.
"That brings you all up to date, you now know as much as I do." Alice said looking across at Tyler with a smile that said sorry for dropping all this on you.
"Thank you Alice. Well from what you say there appears to be no doubt that our two Aldebran spies are indeed aboard the Constellation. They must now know that there is no hope of their just slipping away quietly with their loot, and if the Claytons are indeed the spies then unless they are imbeciles they must realise that their true identity is possibly suspected by you at least Alice. With our arrival, your life is at least safe, for they will know that you will have told us everything that you know. You did realise Alice that you must have been next on their hit list, and as they are thought to have killed up to ten people so far, they would have no problems with their consciences if they had to add your death to that number."
Alice looked across at Tyler; she was shocked by what he had just said, for it had never occurred to her that she could ever be on the hit list of a murderer.
"Before we attempt to try to decide on our plan of campaign Alice, can you tell me what results your doctor obtained from his autopsy of the body of Mrs Peterson?"
"An autopsy Tyler, surely??" Alice Tarraway said looking quizzically at Tyler. "Oh of course you are new to this century aren`t you, it is against the law to perform an autopsy without the permission of the nearest relative and the local bishop, and as they have both refused to give it the doctor could not perform one by law." Tyler groaned.
"I should have guessed, it was getting rather silly in the twenty first century and it doesn`t appear to have got any better here in the future. Ok then another question. Do you have CCTV on board your ship which could give us a lead?" Tyler said not thinking that as a fully paid up member of the church Alice may well not agree with his earlier sentiments, but if she did disagree she kept he thoughts a secret.
"Sorry Tyler but CCTV is also not allowed on any property owned by the Church." Alice said with a shake of her head and an 'I am sorry' smile upon her face.
"Great you ask for my help and then tell me that my hands must be tied." Tyler said with a grin spread right across his face to show that he was joking. As Caroline, Appolon and Tryon did not know what CCTV was, Tyler took a moment and explained it to them before continuing.
"Ok did the two agents ever think about arresting the Claytons on suspicion that they were guilty of numerous murders?" Tyler now asked.
"Tyler they could not have done that, they never found any proof what so ever that the Claytons are imposters, the only proof we have got from Earth so far only proves that they are indeed the Claytons. It is only a gut feeling that Special Agent Formby on Earth and Paul Divine on the ship had, they never found any proof against them, and a feeling is not enough to arrest anyone on." Alice said rather forcefully.
This got grins all round as Alice shot down another of Tyler`s thoughts.
"Sorry Alice, I would like to assure you though that I too am a firm believer in the need to provide proof that a person is guilty before the law is permitted to arrest someone, otherwise we would end up with the governing bodies only needing a pretext to rid themselves of anybody who was opposed to them. I just wanted to make clear in my mind as to where the two agents had got in their investigation." Tyler said to Alice and to all the others assembled on the bridge.
"Ok then Alice can you tell us why the two agents never get around to questioning the Claytons directly about their suspicions?"
"They were not given the chance to, Mrs Peterson died moments before they were to question her and then they too were attacked." Alice said.
"Then we now appear to be up to date and so now we can move on to proposing a plan of action. I think that the first thing that I want to do after boarding the Constellation, Alice, is to have a look at the crime scene, and then later I want to speak to Mr Peterson. Tomorrow morning I think that we should have a re-enactment of Mrs Peterson`s final morning, to see if it might help trigger someone`s memories that might be of help to us. Following on from the re-enactment, we will have to question the Claytons, whatever the results that we get from the re-enactment. Paul, I will want you to ask them a couple of innocent questions about Mars, to find out if they have ever set foot upon the planet. Alice I may want to have one of the miners to have another innocent conversation with them about their supposed profession as geologists, maybe you can suggest someone?"
"Yes of course Tyler, I think that Joe Hardin is your man. He can be awkward but he studied geology before becoming a miner."
"Then the only other thing that we require before we go aboard the shuttle, Alice, is a rough sketch of the deck level where the Claytons and the Petersons are quartered."
Alice soon roughed up a sketch showing the sleeping quarters taking up most of the space, and at the left hand end, there was the galley and an elevator while on the right hand end there were the showers and the toilet area. There was also a flight of stairs just in front of them.
"Here is this any good Tyler?" Alice said handing the sketch to Tyler.
"Yes this will do nicely for now Alice, I will look the deck over as soon as possible after we arrive anyway, to ensure the s
afety of the ship and its people, but this gives us some idea as to what we will find there."
Tyler looked around at everyone and smiled at everyone.
"Ok everyone, for the next few days, until we reach Persephone, or until we find a little more proof as to who are the guilty ones, we few will have to keep a watch on all the decks, but with a special watch on the mid-level deck where the Claytons are berthed. I hope that we can stop any further acts of murder or possibly even acts of sabotage from our two spies, if they are indeed on board the Constellation. Somewhere on board the starship there is proof to be found that will lead us to the guilty parties, have no fear of that. The perpetrators by committing these crimes will have left something behind, and all we have to do is find it."
Tyler then turned to David Reynolds who was listening in to the discussion.
"Right David, the six of us will need to gather a change of clothing and a wash bag, but then we will be ready to go aboard your shuttle so that it can take us up to the Constellation while you prepare the Defender for departure. Richard and Colin will help where necessary, but for the most part it is just a regular cargo vessel."
Ten minutes later as they were about to board the shuttlecraft Tyler turned to David Reynolds and asked him to do one more thing for him.
"When you get aboard the Defender will you send a message to Special Agent Formby on Earth? Ask him these three things.
One, has he checked the Earth space port CCTV, if there is one, for signs of Tirana or of the Claytons that we have here on board the Constellation rather than the genuine ones, this being the probable place that any possible switch would have taken place. That assumes that our Claytons are imposters.
Two, has he asked the Mars spaceport authorities to check their CCTV, again if they have it, for signs of our Claytons, again rather than the genuine ones.
Three, has he checked his computers on Earth for signs of our Claytons, maybe in relation to similar acts of espionage that occurred in the past?
Also please apologise to him if he has already done all of these things, as we are simply clutching at straws up here, not being real detectives."
They boarded the shuttle through the now open airlock and were soon well on their way, and through the shuttles view ports the huge bulk of the Constellation drew nearer and nearer, and to Tyler it resembled a gigantic space ark, but one taking a slightly different cargo from its namesake. Nearby the Orion Defender looked to be no more than an insect, and even the space cruiser Defiant looked tiny beside it. It was not long before the shuttle pulled up alongside an airlock in the side of the enormous white craft and finally attached itself to the starship. The six Orionists and Alice Tarraway could now board the Constellation through the airlock of the shuttle craft, from which they had to travel three feet along an extended tube that moved out from the side of the huge craft to meet up with the smaller ship, whereupon it created an magnetic seal against the shuttle`s side.
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