Linda S. North - The Dreamer, Her Angel and the Stars

by Linda S. North

  The intercom in Kiernan’s quarters chimed, followed by the voice of Second Mate Paula Gooding announcing, “Ms. O’Shay, you have a call from Jack Spivik at Stellardyne headquarters.”

  Jack wouldn’t be calling unless it was important. She hoped nothing had happened to her uncle. “Put it through to my office.” She rose from her seat. “I’ll be right back.” She entered her office and accessed her shipboard communications system. Jack’s image appeared on the screen, and she asked, “What’s up?”

  “Are you somewhere private?”

  “Yes.”

  “Joanna Thorsen—she’s innocent.”

  Kiernan wasn’t sure she was hearing correctly. “Repeat that.”

  “Joanna Thorsen. She’s innocent. She never downloaded information. It was a set-up.”

  “What?”

  “Yes, and she passed the polygraph test, too.”

  “How—why—why would anyone set her up?”

  “I’m sorry to tell you this, but Theodore’s behind it. He tricked me into hiring an expert hacker for the Security Department. This hacker performed the download to Joanna Thorsen’s computer as well as replacing Ms. Thorsen’s results with an old polygraph of someone who failed.”

  A passing wave of nausea gorged her throat. Kiernan swallowed, forcing it down. “Why?”

  “He was banking on Ariel being the dutiful daughter and offering to marry you if you didn’t press charges against her mother.”

  “Oh, God.”

  “He’s resigned. He said he did it because he loved you and wanted you to be happy.”

  “That’s a warped way of showing his love—by ruining an innocent woman’s reputation and—” Ruining Ariel’s life. She gritted her teeth. “E-mail the report to me here on Celeste so I can go over it myself.”

  “I’ll do that now. I’m sorry, Kiernan. I was going to wait until you got back—”

  “No. Thanks for telling me.”

  “I should have done the background checks on this hire and handled things myself. I’ll have my resignation on your desk—”

  “You most certainly will not! This isn’t your fault. We both trusted Theodore. Who would believe he would do something like this.”

  “Thank you. If you need me—”

  “I know how to get in touch with you.”

  She terminated the call and sat for a moment stunned. She should have trusted her instincts about Joanna Thorsen. Instantly the full impact of it hit. Ariel would leave her now, because the real motive for her marrying Kiernan was to protect her mother from prosecution. Kiernan ached inside, but she knew she would let Ariel go because she loved her and would do anything she wished. She might lose Stellardyne and her dream—but her dream paled if she couldn’t share it with Ariel.

  Feeling sick to her stomach, she knew she had to tell her about Jack’s call. But they were having such a good time together and she was afraid this news would somehow drive a wedge in their friendship. Was it wrong that she wanted a little more time with Ariel before she walked out of her life? She decided that, right or wrong, she would wait until they returned home to tell her.

  She composed herself and returned to the recreation room, forcing a smile. “You didn’t move any of the pieces, did you?”

  “Of course not. I don’t need to cheat to beat you.”

  “Beat me? We’ll see.” She sat back down and tried to study the board, but her mind kept going over what Jack’s call could mean to her.

  Kiernan made a few amateurish moves that apparently caught Ariel’s attention. “Is everything alright? You seem preoccupied. Jack didn’t have bad news, did he?”

  “No, just routine business. I’m starting to get a headache.”

  “Maybe you should retire. It’s getting late.”

  “I think you’re right. Let’s finish this game tomorrow night.”

  “Okay. A day won’t make a difference. You’ll still lose.”

  “We’ll see.” Kiernan turned away to hide the pain she knew she wouldn’t be able to conceal. She was certain she would lose more than a chess game.

  HE MOVED RAPIDLY through the umbilical to Celeste’s corridor. No one would question his movements as he had every right to be anywhere on the ship. He opened a door and entered the room containing the umbilical controls, reached the control panel, and pressed a button, then watched out the window as the umbilical disengaged from the shuttle and retracted back into the corridor. He pried open the front faceplate of the control panel, exposed the circuit board, removed two energy router micro crystals, and placed them in his pocket. He replaced the faceplate, closed the door behind him, and hurried down the corridor to finish the next stage in his plan. “O’Shay, you’ll pay for what you did to her—for taking her away from me. Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord.”

  “KIERNAN, YOU’VE HARDLY touched your breakfast,” Ariel said, her concern apparent.

  Kiernan finished taking a sip of her coffee which she hoped would help bring her out of her lethargy. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

  “Do you still have a headache?”

  “No. Just one of those nights.” She pasted on a smile. “Got anything exciting planned this morning?”

  “I’d like to go to the observatory. You want to come with me?”

  “I think I’ll pass this time and listen to some music.”

  “Okay.” Ariel lifted her eyebrows, and said with a bit of excitement, “Think I’ll see some UFOs?”

  “There have been some reports of unidentified flying objects sighted by other ships, but no one has gotten any pictures of them.”

  “I’ll be the first then.” Ariel rose and said, “Later.”

  Kiernan watched her go. Sighing, she left the table and went to the recreation room to listen to some music, try to relax, and take her mind off the future.

  THE DOOR SLID open silently as Ariel entered Kiernan’s quarters and headed to the office to use the computer. She paused at the door to the recreation room. Classical music played in the background, and Kiernan was asleep in one of the easy chairs, her head lolled to the side. She found the sight endearing. Feeling breathless from her emotions, she knelt by the chair and studied Kiernan’s face. She appeared so young and vulnerable when asleep. Ariel desired to kiss her. But if Kiernan woke, Ariel would surely take her to the bedroom. She thought, Why not? It was inevitable. Tonight, after dinner, she’d tell Kiernan her feelings—and take it from there.

  She slowly rose, and silently entered the bedroom. Going to the office and over to the computer, she downloaded the pictures she had taken of various astronomical sights she wanted to e-mail her family.

  The download complete, she accessed the mail, which put her on the inbox page. She was about to enter in a new letter when an e-mail titled ‘Joanna Thorsen Investigation’ caught her attention. From the time and date stamp, she saw that Jack Spivik had sent the mail from Stellardyne the previous night. Ariel suspected that this matter was what had provoked the call Kiernan had taken during their chess game. She hesitated briefly before opening it.

  A JARRING SHAKE of the chair woke Kiernan from sleep. She quickly opened her eyes to see Ariel staring down at her with anger. After adjusting her chair to an upright position, she sat at alert attention. “EM, stop music. What is it?”

  “When were you going to tell me?” Ariel said angrily.

  “Tell you?”

  “My mother. You’ve known since last night.”

  Kiernan got to her feet in a hurry and faced Ariel. “I planned on telling you—later.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me immediately?”

  “I wanted you to enjoy this trip and not worry about anything.”

  Ariel stared contemptuously at her, nostrils flaring, and her voice strained with outrage. “You didn’t think this would make me happy? My mother cleared!”

  Kiernan shriveled under the laser blue stare riveted on her.

  Ariel’s features contorted into an angry mask. “Answer me!”

&
nbsp; A sudden jolt almost sent them to the deck. The lights flickered off and on for a brief moment.

  “Warning. All hands abandon ship. All hands abandon ship. Engine overload imminent in thirty minutes.”

  There was a frozen moment of silence as they looked at each other in disbelief.

  Kiernan said, “What the—?” She couldn’t detect the minute vibration of the deck or the faint hum of the engines. “The ship has stopped. Follow me. We have to go to the shuttle.”

  They hurried through the quarters to the door, expecting it to open automatically only to have Kiernan stop before she ran into it. “Crap!”

  “Why isn’t the door working?” Ariel asked.

  “I don’t know.” Kiernan opened a side panel, and pulled the handle down to manually unlock the door. “Damn, this thing is stuck.”

  “Here, let me try.” Ariel pushed with the force of her weight behind her. “It won’t budge. Now what?”

  “This doesn’t make sense. All emergency systems are checked before each voyage,” Kiernan said.

  “You don’t think someone tampered with the door, do you? Or the engines?”

  “Sabotage?” Kiernan said unbelievingly. “Sure, I have enemies, but I don’t see them doing something so drastic. Computer, activate com-unit to any available station.” After a moment of nothing happening, she ordered, “Computer, acknowledge.” Nothing but silence. “What the hell is going on?” It puzzled Kiernan as to why the computer permitted the warning, but wouldn’t permit outside contact.

  “Maybe someone will come by and check on us. Ricardo or one of the crew.”

  “Yes, the ship has an emergency coordinator whose duty is to make sure everyone is accounted for.”

  “That’s good to know. Can we get far enough away in the shuttle before the engines overload and explode?”

  “Yes, even though they’re nuclear fusion, they’re not going to explode like a bomb with a big mushroom cloud and incinerate everything in the vicinity.”

  “I know that, but engine overload certainly can cause an explosion.” Ariel sounded insulted that Kiernan would explain the obvious.

  “Sorry—Dr. Thorsen,” Kiernan both teased and apologized.

  Ariel stuck out her tongue.

  Kiernan snickered. “The only danger that would cause is whether you left the ship with less than three minutes to spare. You have the risk of getting caught in the force of the explosion.”

  “Warning. Engine overload imminent in twenty-five minutes.”

  “SIR, THE UMBILICAL won’t engage,” an excited crewmember said as she punched the activate button.

  The handful of crew present in the room murmured uneasily.

  “Move and let me try,” First Mate Dwayne Campbell said. He punched the button with no results, turned, and ordered loudly so those in the corridor heard him, “Hey folks. Listen up. We’re going to have to use the escape pods. Let’s go at an orderly clip. Line up in front of the pod you’re assigned to so we can see who’s here, and who’s not.”

  The crew made their way to the pod bay and took their places in front of assigned pods. The Emergency Coordinator, Second Mate Paula Gooding, called the roll, and coming to the end said to Campbell, “Captain Pearson, Ms. O’Shay, and her wife are not present.”

  Campbell asked, “Has anyone seen the Captain or the O’Shays?”

  Ricardo answered, “Yes, I last saw the O’Shays at breakfast this morning.”

  Abigail Morotore, one of the pilots, said, “I was on the bridge when the Captain handed it over to me and said he would be back. That was well over three hours ago.”

  “I want everyone assigned to pod six reassigned to spaces in other pods, and we need to start launching now.” He said to his Emergency Coordinator, “You too, Paula. The Captain’s quarters are on the same floor as the O’Shay quarters—I’ll check them both.”

  “I’ll go with you.”

  “You’re next in command. You’ll be needed in case I don’t make it out in time.”

  “But, sir—”

  “Go. There’s not much time.” Campbell watched as she entered her pod. He waited until all the pods were safely away before sprinting out the bay and to the stairs.

  “COME ON, SOMEBODY.” Kiernan paced impatiently in front of the door.

  “Do you think everyone is alright?” Ariel asked in a concerned voice.

  “I don’t know. It worries me that the computer is down and the locking mechanism on the door failed. I wonder whether the controls on all of them malfunctioned.”

  “You don’t think—” The pneumatic hiss of the door opening interrupted her.

  Kiernan said, “Thank God. Dwayne—”

  Campbell pointed an antique automatic pistol at Kiernan. “Back away from the door.”

  “Kiernan!” Ariel said in alarm.

  “What’s going on here?” Kiernan demanded, jutting her chin out defiantly. She glared at Dwayne.

  “You’ll find out soon enough. Move it.” He motioned with his gun toward the living room. “Over there, by the sofa.”

  Ariel glanced at Kiernan who looked at her and nodded once. They moved to where Campbell indicated and stopped.

  Kiernan’s eyes bored into his. “What the hell are you doing, Dwayne?”

  “Doing what I should have done a long time ago. Getting rid of a pervert.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You’re an abomination, O’Shay. You’re an affront to God and everything decent. You deserve to die,” he screamed. “Die for spreading your perversion and filth, for corrupting the innocent!”

  “I’ve never corrupted anyone—”

  “You lie! You corrupted Barbara. You took her away from me. Now she’s a damn pervert!”

  “Barbara? I don’t know who—” The past rushed up to catch her and she remembered. She’d accompanied Dwayne Campbell to a few victory parties right before Kiernan quit racing. One night after a party at Kiernan’s apartment, Barbara came back about an hour later, saying she’d lost a necklace. Kiernan had lifted up the sofa cushions, thinking it might have slipped between them. She had sensed Barbara close behind her and turned to find herself in the woman’s arms. The affair lasted around three weeks. Campbell never said anything or acted as if anything happened. Two months after the affair, Barbara and Dwayne married. Kiernan recalled receiving an invitation to the wedding, but her grandmother had recently died, and she was wrapped up in dealing with the estate. She sent the couple a nice gift and went about the business of running Stellardyne. Later, she heard they’d divorced but didn’t know the details.

  “Yeah, O’Shay, I see you remember now. I’ve been waiting for this day to come.”

  “That happened a long time ago. It’s time to move on, don’t you think?”

  “I’m moving on. But you, O’Shay, you’ll watch as I take that little whore of yours away from you. Then you’ll join her—in hell where all you perverts belong!”

  “This is between me and you, Dwayne. Leave Ariel out of this. She has nothing to do with what happened. Let her go.”

  “No. I’m staying.” Ariel placed her hand on Kiernan’s shoulder.

  “Oh, how touching. The loyal little wife. She’s a pervert like you, O’Shay. She deserves to die.”

  “Tell me how do you think you’ll get away with this?”

  “Oh, tsk, tsk, the computer’s control matrix failed and shut down most of the ship, including communications, and locked your door from the inside. Too bad the engines were off line and the cooling rods didn’t shut down. We couldn’t extend the umbilical to get to the shuttle. The crew had to use the escape pods. Somehow, you, your whore, and Captain Pearson never made it to the last remaining escape pod. I searched and searched for you three. There was barely enough time left for me to escape until—Boom!” He sneered.

  “What happened to Captain Pearson?” Kiernan demanded.

  “Why, he had an accident when he went to investigate a report he received concerning a f
uel leak onboard the shuttle.”

  “You murdered him so you would be in command.” His eyes held madness, and her fears were confirmed when he smirked. “That’s why you disabled the umbilical, so no one would find him on the shuttle and notify me. You knew I would alert Planetary Security on Mars and they would rendezvous with us in less than two days. A full investigation and polygraph test would catch you. You’re a sick bastard, Dwayne. You’re the one going to hell.”

  “Shut up! You’re the one who’s sick. You and those like you. Now, get away from your whore. She goes first, while you watch.”

  “It’s about time you got here,” Kiernan said in relief, her eyes focusing past him toward the door.

  Campbell swiveled his head, and Kiernan rushed forward. She slammed her body hard against his. He fell and Kiernan fell with him, both rolling on the floor. Dwayne managed to roll on top of her and drew his arm up to aim his gun at her head. As fast as lightning, Ariel kicked his hand. The gun went flying and skidded along the carpet to slide under the sofa. Ariel kicked him hard in the ribs. Kiernan jabbed him sharply under his chin with the palm of her hand, snapping his head back.

  Ariel twisted her body to the side and used a sidekick to his torso, sending him off Kiernan and allowing her to get to her feet. “Run Ariel, to the escape pod!”

  “Warning. Engine overload imminent in five minutes.”

  Kiernan followed Ariel out the open door and ran down the corridor on her heels. They swerved down another corridor and stopped at the elevator. Ariel slapped the button. “Ariel, no. The elevators are offline. Take the stairs.” It was standard procedure during an emergency to stop the operation of the elevators to prevent anyone from becoming stuck if the power went offline.

  They ran hard down the corridor for another sixty feet to the stairwell. As Ariel hit the button to open the door, there was a loud bang and something whizzed close by.

  “Shit, he’s shooting!” The door slid open. Kiernan crowded close behind Ariel, breathless. “Go down two flights.” They stampeded down and exited into the corridor.

  There was another loud bang, and the bullet struck the deck by Kiernan’s right foot.

  “Left!” Kiernan shouted. They headed toward the far end of the corridor where the pod bay was located. The door was already open. Ariel sprinted into the bay and slowed, searching for the remaining pod.