Taking a break from the sensor readouts, he looked outside at the gases as they passed. At this depth, he was sure he could see the edges of open space, but the gases were thick. As he watched, the mist outside congealed as his fighter cut through it, and he could make out shapes and images, much like he used to do with clouds back on Earth. The display outside his canopy was captivating, and the images became more defined as they got closer. The first few started off as familiar items, like his ship, his boyhood home, but they quickly changed, and he was able to make out faces. An image of his mother passed by on his right then one of his father passed above him. They were so lifelike he could hardly believe it. A few moments later, Thielson’s face appeared to his left, and he chuckled as the image contained that disapproving scowl she presented whenever he was around.
Just in front of him a larger image of his sister, Elsa, formed out of a red tinged mist, and Krieg found himself staring at it in silent awe for several seconds. The image was so real. He looked closer and swore he could see her lips moving. Was she trying to talk?
As he tried to focus on what she was saying, alarms called out all across his main display. He instantly switched on his helmet’s HUD and ran a systems check to try to find the cause of the alert. His scope was blank, and he could find nothing wrong with his systems, but the image of Elsa’s face was still there, it hadn’t passed by in the mist.
He pulled back on his control stick to move closer to the edge of Jupiter’s atmosphere, but even as the engines responded and his sensors registered a change in his position, the gases failed to dissipate. He increased his throttle and adjusted to a more extreme vector, but his situation remained the same.
Frustrated, he tried to raise his squadron mates via their comm channel, but only static responded. Refusing to let panic set in, he calmly tried to think through his situation. He rechecked his systems again and looked back outside. Elsa’s face was there, still talking to him in the mist.
Krieg turned off his HUD and tried to focus on her face again. As much as he tried, he couldn’t understand what she was saying. He could make out his name, but that was it.
Without warning, the proximity alarm beeped on his panel. He re-engaged his HUD and checked his scope. Something big was out there, directly ahead, and it was close. He looked outside to get a visual, but still nothing. He looked back toward Elsa’s face and the image quickly faded, leaving behind a large gray object in the mist.
Krieg recognized it immediately. Asteroid! He pulled back on his controls to break away from the huge rock, but his ship failed to respond. “How did that get here?” he shouted. Rogue asteroids were common around Jupiter and some had maintained a low orbit, but never inside the gaseous layer of the planet. He issued a Mayday call across all EDF monitored frequencies, but again there was no response, only static.
He was in trouble. His heart raced. Trying to relax and keep control, he took a few deep breaths as he reduced his throttle and attempted to slow his ship down with maneuvering thrusters, but they too refused to activate. He checked his sensors again. His ship’s computer estimated about twenty seconds to impact.
He shut down his systems and performed an emergency restart to regain control. The systems came online again as the pocketed surface of the asteroid grew larger outside. His fighter continued to close the distance.
Krieg pushed his throttle forward and all power to his systems died. “No. no, no. Come on baby...come on...” He looked back at the approaching asteroid. Knowing the impact was only seconds away, he closed his eyes and waited for the end.
* * *
One of Dr. Patton’s nurses nearly dropped the urine specimen glass she was taking to the lab when she heard the scream from across the room. She quickly set the glass on a nearby counter and rushed over to the bed where the scream originated.
The young pilot they brought in earlier was now awake and clearly frantic, pulling against the restraints that tied him to the bed. The nurse reached across him and attempted to hold him down as he struggled against the bed’s restraints. “Dr. Patton!” she yelled. Another nurse arrived to help her restrain the young man. “Lieutenant Krieg is awake!”
Patton rushed to the bed, his white coat flowing out behind him as he ran. Krieg was still actively resisting the nurses’ attempts to restrain him, and the bed nearly toppled when Patton reached it. He leaped on top of the pilot, using his body to hold down his arms as the nurses tightened the restraints. Patton struggled to maintain a good hold on the surprisingly strong lieutenant. As he managed to press his shoulder firmly against Krieg’s chest, he witnessed the changes in the pilot’s face.
Krieg’s face was already red with frustration, blood vessels were now becoming visible, and his eyes, now fully dilated, were showing signs of red around the irises. Patton immediately yelled behind him to the third nurse who arrived on the scene. “Nurse, twenty cc’s propofal!”
The nurse quickly opened the door to the nearby medicine cabinet and removed a jet injector and vial. She pushed the vial in fast, snapped the cover down to ready the injector and rushed to Patton’s side. She moved her hand to the lieutenant’s neck, pressed hard against his skin and pulled the trigger.
Krieg didn’t react to the injection, but it took only a few seconds for the powerful sedative to flood his system, and his thrashing began to ease. As his body relaxed, the blood vessels in his face receded slightly. His breathing began to slow down. Taking advantage of the new situation, the nurses assisting Patton finished tightening the restraints and secured the bed to anchors on the floor.
Patton continued to sprawl across Krieg’s chest until he was satisfied that the sedative had done its job. Once he was sure that Krieg’s condition had calmed, and the nurses had secured the restraints, he slid off the lieutenant’s bed and wiped the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. “I want a full neural workup on him and keep him conscious,” he told the nurse who had administered the sedative. Patton leaned over Krieg’s head, checked his vitals, and gently felt the raised areas on his face and neck caused by the blood vessel expansion.
“Where...where...where am I?” Krieg muttered, and his eyes slowly trained to Patton’s face.
“Easy, Lieutenant,” Patton said soothingly. “Just relax. You’re in medical.”
“How did I get here?” Krieg said a bit sluggishly.
“All in good time, Lieutenant. For now, just relax. You’re in good hands.” Patton patted his shoulder with his hands and moved out of the way to let the nurses begin their tests. He left the medical ward for his private office and activated a new comm channel from his terminal. “Lieutenant Greywalker. Your suspect has regained consciousness.”
* * *
Commander Sanchez entered Hood’s quarters and realizing he was the last to arrive, quickly took a seat with Maya and Dr. Patton around Hood’s desk. Hood nodded to him as he sat down and walked over to his chair with a new cup of coffee. “So, what do we know?” Hood asked the trio.
Patton spoke first, and the Australian adjusted his low rim glasses to read his data pad. “Well, I have several things to report. It seems that Lieutenant Krieg has suffered some sort of neural shock induced by an unidentified reagent. I found a small trace of it near his puncture wound under his chin, but it degenerates quickly, which has made analyzing it difficult. There were traces of it in his blood stream, but nowhere near the levels in that of the victims. Once I knew what to look for, I set a diagnostic to scan for it.”
As Patton explained his findings, Hood set down his coffee and nearly spilled it off the saucer. “Is it a poison?”
Patton removed his glasses. “Not exactly, but rather some sort of neural stimulant,” he said. “It seems to act very similarly to medications which regulate synaptic activity, but on a whole new level by temporarily restructuring brain chemistry in two specific areas, the prefrontal cortex and amygdala.”
&nb
sp; “What about the tasers?” Sanchez interjected.
“As I suspected, the taser wounds were all post mortem, and the bruises on Lieutenant Krieg’s arms were defensive, so he may have indeed seen his attacker”
Maya handed Hood a data pad with her investigation file already open. “The taser was definitely one of ours,” Maya added. “It came from a security station on deck eight that wasn’t activated yet.”
Hood started to look through Maya’s file. “If the taser and this reagent didn’t kill those men, then what did?”
“Fear,” Patton said. “Extreme terror to be more exact. Each of them experienced a level that their mind and body could not handle, thus causing neural distress and then cardiac failure. In each case, the autopsies are consistent.” Patton opened a file on his data pad that displayed different areas of the brain and showed it to the three officers. “The two areas of the brain affected have direct control over the level of stimuli and how we process our fears. By altering the function, the toxin simply loosened the controls, but something had to interject an image or basis for that terror that these men experienced.” Patton shivered. “Mr. McCraken said he heard each of the men scream in agony just before they died. I am positive that Lieutenant Krieg would have met the same fate, but his lower exposure produced an unconscious dream-like state instead. We were lucky to have him in medical when the nightmare became conscious for him, or he would be joining the others currently in the morgue.”
“How would someone interject an image like that into their mind?” Maya asked.
“The body processes a variety of stimuli differently, but this would have had to be fast and quite detailed to produce such a quick onset,” Patton said. “A neural transmitter possibly, but...”
“But what, doctor?” Hood questioned.
“Our neural transmitters are huge rigs. We use them to diagnose symptoms in unconscious states, not interject images or new neural patterns into our patients. Outside of any revolutionary technology, I would say telepathy would be a fast transmitter.”
“Telepathy, doc?” Sanchez asked pessimistically. “The Cilik’ti supposedly communicate that way. Do you think they could be involved?”
Patton thought about the question for a moment. “Highly unlikely, Commander. I am not an expert in that field, but from what I have read, their ability to communicate via telepathy is limited to their own species. My suggestion was merely hypothetical.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Hood told Patton. “When do you expect we can talk with Lieutenant Krieg?”
“The toxin degenerated quickly, and he seems to have made a resounding recovery. I still have him under observation, but he can take visitors at any time,” Patton said. “Barring a security issue, he should be cleared to return to duty by tomorrow.”
“Excellent. I would like to hear what he has to tell us.” Hood looked at his Security Chief and handed back her data pad. “Lieutenant, how is your investigation proceeding?”
“Forensics at the scene has corroborated my early beliefs that the perpetrator attacked each individual separately and by use of this foreign reagent, neutralized them. According to the access records and the hallway video surveillance cameras, Lieutenant Krieg entered the office at the time of the murders based on Dr. Patton’s time of death estimate,” Maya said.
She opened a new file, whose contents scrolled across the screen. She handed the data pad to Sanchez. “Hamels and McCraken identified several files that were accessed on the terminal in the Epherium office. All of the files they identified were copied, but a few were erased. Hamels is still trying to recover the erased data, but has thus far been unsuccessful.”
Sanchez watched the data scroll past, and he stopped it occasionally. “What is this?”
Maya’s gaze landed on Sanchez. “According to McCraken, these are the personnel files for everyone on board each of the colony ships.”
“Why would anyone want those, let alone kill for it?” Hood said. He looked briefly at his uncle’s picture on the wall then back at Maya. “Wouldn’t that information be publicly available?”
Maya nodded. “A majority of it yes, but we are still correlating the differences between the data here and the more widely circulated version.”
Sanchez handed the data pad back to Maya and posed another question. “What about the data that was erased? Does McCraken have any idea what was in those files?”
“He believes they are more personnel records, but is unsure to what they pertain. Hamels has some leads on recovering the data, but he cannot give me an accurate time estimate,” Maya explained as she stood. “I’m headed to medical to interview Lieutenant Krieg. If he got a good look at his assailant, it will be extremely useful, but could also put him in danger.”
Patton and Sanchez also stood to leave as Hood took a deep breath. “Thank you everyone, dismissed.”
* * *
Maya Greywalker rubbed her eyes gently, as she continued to review video footage of the hallway outside the Epherium office before Lieutenant Krieg’s arrival. Her interview with the young lieutenant had been brief, but had given her a few more leads to chase.
According to Krieg, the last thing he remembered was standing outside the office waiting for the doors to open. The video footage did show him waiting briefly at the door then entering the room with no incident.
His statement concerning his reason for coming to the offices was also mysterious. Krieg mentioned he received a message from McCraken inviting him to the Epherium office for an interview. Maya had followed up the discussion with McCraken as well, but he claimed never to have sent any message. Neither of them was lying.
She had Hamels look into the message while she looked for any trace of the assailant. She was positive now that Krieg was a pawn in the actions that took place in the office, but why? What was the connection? Her mind raced as she tried to put the pieces together, but another piece was still missing. If the killer was not one of the staff or Krieg, how did he get into the office and avoid the hallway cameras?
Her system beeped as her records search concluded. Maya reviewed the results and smiled in satisfaction. She was about to activate a comm channel to Hood, when a call from Hamels came in.
Maya opened the channel. “This is Greywalker. What do you have, Sergeant?”
“The message definitely did not come from the Epherium office,” Hamels said. “The origination ID was masked pretty well, but I was able to trace it down to that security station the taser came from.”
“Excellent job, Sergeant. How about the deleted data? Any progress?”
“Getting there, but even with the computer’s help it may take hours or days. I’ll comm you with an update in a few hours. Hamels out.”
Maya closed the channel and opened a new one to Hood, who answered immediately. “Captain, I need to speak with you, privately.”
Hood voice sounded tired. “Alright, my office, ten minutes.”
* * *
Maya sat next to Hood as they stared at a video replay on his terminal. From what Hood could tell, that video was some sort of memorial service on Earth, but couldn’t recognize anyone. “Okay, Lieutenant, what am I looking at?”
“This is the funeral service for the victims at Kendrick.” She quickly pointed to the screen at a figure seated down front. It was Lieutenant Krieg.
“Okay. I understand that Krieg was there. His sister was at Kendrick, but...” Hood stopped as he watched a man walk onto the stage and start speaking. It was Henry McCraken. “Well, well. So this puts the two of them together at some point, but why does it matter? You already told me that Krieg’s invitation to the office was false. Are you suggesting that McCraken could have instigated this?”
Maya shook her head. “No, I’m fairly certain that McCraken would have been a target as well if he had not managed to hide during the attack. That m
ay explain the reason why our intruder was unable to completely cover his tracks while in the system. Time was against him. He had to be clear and away from the office well before the bodies were discovered. It’s quite possible that Krieg’s arrival interrupted the process and altered the killer’s timeline of events.”
Maya pulled out her data pad and accessed the search results she had compiled earlier in her office. “After doing some digging, it turns out that McCraken was the project manager for the terraforming experiment on Kendrick, that’s why he was speaking at the funeral. I reviewed the records, and there are two other crew members on board with some level of connection to Kendrick. Like Krieg, they had family members that died in the accident, but the family losses were distant, not blood relatives. Krieg’s was the closest to home, making him a viable fall guy.”
“Are you suggesting some grand conspiracy?”
Maya face grew tight and her voice changed from her more melodic tone to one of pure steel. “Captain, someone has managed to connect the dots here, someone with access to very restricted files and with that, managed to orchestrate this series of events.”
Hood turned off the video and looked at his Security Chief. “It seems to me that we are dealing with a lot of feints and misdirection. What’s the ‘why’ here?”
“Information seems to be the real target, but for what reason, I don’t know,” she said reluctantly. “Hopefully Hamels can find a link in the data, but all my other leads haven’t produced the connection yet.”
“We need that data, Lieutenant, and I want to know the reason behind this before we jump again. I will delay what I can to give you more time, but we need to keep moving.”
Maya turned her chair to face Hood’s. “I have an idea I want to run by you while my people are trying to get that data.”
Hood sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. “All right, Lieutenant. I’m listening.”
The Epherium Chronicles: Embrace Page 22