Tramp Wars: The Enemy

by Larry Roberts

  “Well, why don’t you arrest the son of a bitch? I am damn sick and tired of putting people back together after he gets done with them.” The Doctor demanded.

  “Come Doctor. You should know by now that as soon as we arrest him or his son, our ability to collect evidence against him and his family become 10 times as hard with his lawyers required to fallow us around witnessing everything we do or say so it can be used against us during the trial. Half the evidence we collect even if it is still there by the time we get to it after the lawyers have had time to sanitize everything and every place we go since we have to tell them before we can search so they can have their experts witness us gathering evidence, will be thrown out on some minor technicality depending on what law they can find to manipulate. Even if they have to lie.”

  Shaking his head the Master At Arms continued. “We already have a massive amount of evidence thanks to a video of the whole attempted murder. We have already gotten the pipe that was thrown off the top platform trying to kill them in the first attack. The water protected it from the acid and has already supplied DNA with the ding in the end of the pipe matching the fresh mark in the deck confirming the time it hit and it matches the pipe found with the dead boys and the one used to block the hatch trapping the boys inside. We also got Chet’s suit when we kept it for decontamination, matching traces of particles from the inside of the tank before the canisters were lit off, including DNA from the two boys. Fact is a lot of DNA from one of the boys. The video gave us enough information to search the Greedly’s storage box in Tramptown and resulted in seizing several poison canisters identical to the ones used in the Tank with traces of two missing canisters that had to be recently removed and weapons matching the stun guns in the tank complete with sequential serial numbers. For icing on the cake,we found the weapon used to kill Dick and then blow his body off the ramp with the suspects including his father along with several of his family members’ finger prints and DNA on it and the ammunition.”

  The Chief looked down at his tablet. “Your autopsy records, now that you have gone back over and declared the suicide deaths homicides yesterday, have also been seized so they cannot be tampered with and show that this weapon was probably used to kill most of them as well. We will be performing a search of the Greedly’s family deck section shortly before the decks and airtight bulkheads are reopened and before they have had time to get rid of or destroy all the traces of evidence that maybe in their cabin complex. We also now have enough evidence to force a physiological reconstruction of most of his sex girls in his club to find if any have had their minds chemically altered and programmed. That is if we don’t arrest them too soon freezing the charges and what we can investigate while they get rid of possible witnesses we have not identified yet along with evidence.” Looking up at the Doctor with a smile. “If that is all right with you doctor?”

  “My crap. You know all that shit is just a holdover from a damn Old Empire that was run by criminals and monopolistic companies that decided that criminals have more rights than the average citizen. Why are we still using it?” the Doctor said disgustedly.

  “Probably because half the councilmen are on the take and protecting themselves for when they get caught.” The Chief said.

  Captain Cook realized that they all were tired and still on edge after spending the entire night dealing with the disaster. “Enough now both of you. You know there is little value on this ship for graft beyond a few perks. Nothing to kill anyone over. No one lives much better than anyone else. We all could use some sleep. How are the individual deck emergency air purifiers doing cleaning out the toxins Doctor and has all the compartments and cabins been opened and tested for toxins yet?”

  “Hell, my medics have spent most of the night just dealing with the sick but the decks themselves have all checked clean of toxin now. The Problem are the cabins that have to be manually switched back onto the air supply system which is the majority of the ship. (Cabins are automatically isolated from the air supply system when the fire alarm or vacuum alarm is activated and have individual emergency oxygen supplies and CO2 scrubbers for 72 hours of occupancy in an emergency). Which is why I wanted them upgraded to new auto-resetting isolation valves on all the cabins.” The Doctor said disgustedly.

  “We have been announcing for everyone to reset their cabins air isolation valves since 5 this morning and you know we don’t have the money to replace all of them. Now how is the cabin checks going?”

  My medics are just starting to check cabins for remaining toxins and a quick check on the occupants’ health and the valves. But we are running into cabins no one is responding from which is where we have found all our deaths so far except for the murdered boys in the tank. Having to clean the remaining toxins out of each cabin before it is returned to the deck’s emergency air system as we go, to keep from recontaminating the deck, is taking time. When are you going to open the ship to the outside air and start airing out the main ventilation system of the ship and the farm?”

  Captain Cook looked down at her desk and back up at the Doctor. “Well Doctor that could be the rest of the day. The port has thrown an air shield around the ship trapping in the poison to keep it from contaminating the ships in the surrounding pits. They are bringing in a processor to decontaminate the air in the bubble but it is going to take at least a few hours before they will release the air shield. Damn shame we don’t have an airshield on our truck deck hatch so we could keep operating the trucks but then we would need one on each of the cargo deck hatches as well.” Damn new technology. At least most of the holds got a damn good fumigation without costing any lives. I still can’t believe that boy found a separate Air recycling and conditioning system to install in Tramptown main air supply complete with filters, filtering out what little poison that leaked into the hold.”

  The Captain took a couple of puffs on her stogie. “Well Doctor, hopefully we will be able to afford a few more improvements such as aircurtains after a few months in the outback that would speed loading and safety.” Turning to the Damage Control Chief. “How long is it going to take to get the tank deck hatches back on and how damaged are they from hitting the damn pit?”

  “You can thank Godstar they did not fall from any higher or we would be looking at replacing them. I still don’t understand why the little pipsqueak blew the hatches in the first place. He shut and locked all the deck hatches when he pulled the fire and vacuum alarms. There was no need to blow them. But then I did not even know we had hatches there that could be blown.”

  “It seems that the Admiral went to Ensign Collins since he was the officer on the scene. We will have to wait until Mr. Collins is out of sick bay to find out why he blew our tank hatches.” Turning to Doctor Wells. “How long until he is out of his coma Doctor?”

  “He should be up and around soon. Dian is already up and wanting out of sickbay to help and she was all but dead. The two firefighters first responding to the fire call are doing almost as well thanks to those Nannites Collins provided. Fact is Collin’s physical shape is looking to damn good for what he has been through but something is keeping him under doing some kind of training program. His mind is racing at 90 miles an hour if you ask me.”

  “What do you mean Training Program Doctor?” The Captain asked baffled.

  “You will have to ask Mark that the next time you see him. I don’t have a clue except the text said something about training.”

  “Text?” The First Officer said surprised. “Who’s text and where the hell did Collins get Nannites from.”

  “From his glasses. Seems like his glasses are some kind of AI.” The Doctor looked at Captain Cook and frowned.

  “AI?” The Captain shook her head and turned back to the Hull Damage Control Chief. “How long until you get those hatches back on so we can seal the tanks?”

  “Well, now if the damage is not greater than I think it is, then a day or two once we get rid of this little quarantine bubble so my crews can work.”

  The Cap
tain frowned. “You have suits. Use them and get it done.”

  The Truck Chief leaned forward. “And what about my truck deck. I have almost a foot of water in the damn thing I need to get rid of and damaged equipment scattered half way around the deck. I have to open the damn hatch Captain so I can drain it and dump half the repair parts for the trucks. Repair parts we can’t just go out and buy anymore even here. Let alone out in the damn Out Back. We could wind up with only half the trucks none operational in 6 months.” The Truck Chief shook his head as he growled. “When I get my hands on that boy I am going to rip those damn wings right off his chest. Of all the stupid things to do, opening that hatch and then leaving it open. Hell, he ruined a quarter million credits of Truck parts and materials we can’t replace.”

  “Enough Chief, the boy was half dead and a little busy at the time to be shutting the hatch if he could have. I see you didn’t send someone up to shut it for a good half hour.” Shaking her head. “His first responsibility was saving the lives of the crew including his own and yours.” Taking a deep puff and blowing a smoke ring wafting towered the Chief. “The port wants to pump the damn water to a storage pond someplace outside the port. I don’t understand why since the water broke down the damn poison into its base elements. They should have it set up by this after noon.” Captain Cook started rubbing her face with her hand. Massaging her temples and eyes as the stogie hung out between her hands. “Though I don’t know how the hell we are going to pay for all the cleanup.”

  “Ah. Captain, Ms. Abraham had a case with her taken from the aircar in the hold that has quite a bit of money. Probably originally the property of the occupants of the aircar she found it in. I think it qualifies as salvage. Though it doesn’t matter. It could go a long way to paying the cleanup bills.” The Doctor was hopeful. Though he liked the idea of acquiring a Nannite factory the note had talked about.

  “Well that will help Doctor.” Turning to look at the Agriculture or Farm Chief. “What is the damage to the Farm deck?”

  “Substantial. The damn hatches were locked open going down to the tank but even then if it had just been the poison the farm would have just gotten a good fumigating though we would have had to replace all the beneficial insects if it had lasted a few minutes longer. As it is, over half the farm deck is a total lose including the growth medium. The acid sterilized everything it touched. If the tank hatches had not been blown, the whole deck would have been lost. We have enough to recover but it will take time. One piece of luck was the stables being located on the back flow side of the air system from the rest of the ship to keep the smell from traveling up ship and the oxygen content high with the oxygen concentrating filters between it and the rest of the low oxygen farm decks, most of the livestock, poultry and insects in that section have survived. And luckily the workers down there at the time already had oxygen masks on so when one of them heard the explosions below and then the crops being eaten by that dark cloud they got out of there.”

  Captain Cook stared at the Farm Chief. “Ok, it’s a shame one of them did not pull the fricking fire alarm that would have isolated the farm deck from the rest of the ship as soon as they saw what was happening. It would have been a good 10 minutes sooner than when Commander Collins activated the alarms.”

  “My fault there Captain. The night shift Forman was on vacation and I left one of the junior farm hands in charge while she is gone. Give him some experience since the night shift is mostly just a maintenance detail.”

  The Captain shook her head sadly. It did not matter who was in charge. Pulling the fire alarm should have been the first thing anyone should have done. She would have to go into much more detail with the Farm Chief later about his haphazard way of running things down there, including drills. She turned to the Damage Control Chief. “How much damage has been done to the tanks and how long will it take to clean them up?”

  The Chief shrugged his shoulders. “The acidic gas has dropped out of the hatch to the bottom of the pit and the exhaust channel along with much of the water that was left in the tank so I don’t understand what the Truck Chiefs problem is. Though with the hatches wide open with the tanks still exposed to the poison even if it is only 5%, we can’t even think of doing much clean up. Not to mention that we can’t dump any contaminated water into the pit even though the pit is already full of it already. The water would help neutralize the gas making it easier to clean up, but no, they don’t want that. It makes too much sense. We may have to bring an outside firm in that specializes in hazard waste cleanup.”

  “That is not going to happen. If we have to, we will do it ourselves once we get out of this system. You just make sure we have everything we need.”

  The Chief Master at Arms spoke up. “Those tanks are still crime scenes and can’t be cleaned up yet anyway until the tanks are aired out and I have had a crew go over every inch of every tank. We have had a mass murderer on the ship for decades by the looks of it and I am not going to let them off the hook simply because we cleaned a vital piece of evidence out of one of those tanks before we knew it was evidence.”

  “Well Frank, get your investigators into suits and get them in there now and quit wasting time.”

  The Doctors phone beeped and after listening he turned to the Chief Master at Arms. “Frank, you have the Greedly section locked down for a crime evidence search already?”

  The Chief looked at the Doctor irritated. “I told everyone here that we weren’t going to touch them until we had all the evidence we could find elsewhere. We haven’t even had time to execute a search warrant on their whore compartment yet with a friendly judge I don’t think is in Greedly’s pocket on duty yet. Even if I didn’t want to gather more evidence first. As soon as we get a search warrant for their private cabins, all their other holdings become off limits including that damn club of theirs without prior court permission, which is the next place we are headed now we have probable cause. Their personal section or compound or Vault to be more exact, is the last place I want to search yet.” Smiling. “Especially since it was locked down by Mr. Collins pulling both the vacuum and ship wide fire alarms.” Smiling back at the good Doctor.

  “Then why are they not answering the hatch or any of the other comms and the Master Medical access key does not work so they can at least check the passageways in that section for gas concentrations.”

  The Chief Master at Arms looked baffled for a second as his smile dropped. Tapping his comm he started checking things as his face grew grim.

  Captain Cook started taping on her screen as the Chief Master at Arms spoke up. “Our passageway monitors show that section with normal morning traffic including Chet Greedly being there all night along with the rest of his family and the Union clan and I know he has been down in the suit locker since we found out about the murders.”

  “I thought you said Chet Greedly was not under arrest?”

  “He isn’t, I had an officer escort him down through the closed deck hatches to the air lock deck to change out of his suit. My officer waited to escort him back up through the decks and got suspicious when Chet got nervous then demanded privacy to take off his suit, especially since a murder on the tank deck he had been found on had been reported, though it was still just an accusation at that time. Then when we found the bodies, my officers have simply been too busy to escort him back up the decks.” The Chief smiled. “Fact is my officer was nice enough to give him clean cloths while taking his to be cleaned when he took a shower. Storing them in an evidence bag that just happened to be handy while locking up his suit in an isolation lock to keep from contaminating the rest of the deck that saved one hell of a lot of evidence. I think we need to give that Ship’s Patrol crewman a promotion to Master at Arms Sargent, Captain.” The Chief smiled for a second as he continued tapping on his comm. “No. I just saw someone go through the exit hatch Doctor. Check with your medic again.”

  The Doctor looked up from his comm. “Yes it is still locked up tight with no responses Frank.”

/>   Standing up the Chief Master at Arms shook his head as he frowned. “I don’t like this at all. I am going down there.”

  Captain Cook stood as well turning to her First Officer. “Harry, get a marine breaching team down to the Greedly section now. In battle gear. I am headed down as well. As Captain I don’t need a damn search warrant.” Turning to the Doctor on her way out. “You too Doctor though I hope to Godstar, you will not be needed as a physician.” And suddenly realized she was even more scarred of him not being needed as a physician.

  -----------------------------

  Mark walked up through the squad of armored Star Queen Marines as Captain Cook turned around saying. “Since the Master at Arms techs can’t unlock the damn hatch, it is your turn Marines.” Her eyes spotted Mark and narrowed for a second before turning back to the marines. “Blast the damn hatch. I want in there now.”

  Mark held up his hand coming to attention in front of the Captain and saluting. “Please Captain, if you will allow me. No sense in damaging perfectly good hatches. Especially since someone went to all the trouble to put in such a nice thick armored hatch.”

  The Captain could not believe what was standing in front of her. “I thought you were almost dead last night and laying comatose in Sick Bay. What are you doing running around now and why are you here?”

  “The Admiral ordered me Sir. He thought I could be of some assistance to you and sent me down to collect Chet’s key card amongst other things.” Mark held it up for the Captain to see. “He was very surprised to see me. Looked like he had seen a ghost. Said something about watching me die and why wasn’t I dead. Went on babbling for several minutes confessing to all kinds of things in front of the Patrolman.” Flashing a quick smile. “With your permission sir.” Mark did not wait but stepped up to the hatches side control panel and slipped the key card that had a small chip Mark hadadded to its corner into the reader. Mark stared at a screen at head height that lit up scanning his face and the armored hatch slide open. Then started to step back rubbing his shoulder still covered with a healing biofilm.