Murder on Moon Trek 1

by Diane Vallere

  “We adjust the hours as needed by the guests. And don’t spend another minute worrying about the distraction. Captain Swift told me he instructed Neptune to get to engineering. I wouldn’t have expected Neptune to care much either way about leaving his date alone at the table. He gets points for taking you with him.”

  I started to protest and explain that Neptune and I hadn’t been on a date until it occurred to me that Neptune had ample opportunities to clear that up himself. According to Neptune, I had to go with him because I was in his custody. If he was keeping that a secret from the other members of the ship, then he must have a reason. And the only reason I could come up with was that he didn’t have grounds to hold me in the cell. Explaining my temporary incarceration would have put him in a negative light. Maybe I could use this to my advantage.

  I stood up and followed the purser out of the sublevel, onto the elevator, and up to my floor. We turned left and walked side by side to my quarters. It was late, and the halls were empty. We had six more days of travel before reaching Ganymede. The captain and his first officers would be off tonight which meant the second in command of each station would be on the bridge.

  “Purser Frank, who’s responsible for taking over duties of the second navigational officer?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The second nav officer was dead in the uniform ward earlier today. I was the one who found him, and I reported it to the bridge. I just realized that the first officers were all required to be at First Dinner, which means the second in command would be on the bridge, wouldn’t they? But with no second navigation officer, who would be responsible for keeping us on course?”

  “Funny you should ask. Yeoman D’Nar stepped into that role. Her degree in general space sciences made her the most qualified person on the ship.”

  “But she was with you at First Dinner.”

  “Only to make an appearance. She left shortly after you and Neptune did.”

  “Is that why she didn’t come get me herself? The uniform ward is under her umbrella of responsibility, and I would have expected her to know where I was and why I was there. With her additional responsibilities, will she still be my boss?”

  “Temporarily. We have a stop scheduled at the next space station.”

  I stopped outside of my door. “I thought Moon Unit 5 went directly to Ganymede? Won’t the passengers be alarmed if we start making unscheduled stops?”

  The purser held his finger up to his mouth and then pointed to my door. I waved my hand over the sensor and the doors swished open. We went inside. The doors swished shut.

  “This isn’t public knowledge, but they told me you know what’s been going on.”

  “A little. Why?”

  “Just this. The captain is concerned. He arranged a stop off on Colony 5. He’s telling passengers it’s a chance to shop for space souvenirs, but Federation Council is sending a representative to join us for the duration of the trip. Once Neptune makes an arrest, he’ll place them in the custody of Federation Council representative, who will take charge of them until we land at our final destination. The ship will be safe and the crew can focus on their jobs. And if one of our own is responsible for the crimes, then having a neutral party on board will eliminate any possible loyalties that have already formed.”

  “Sounds like the captain thought of everything.”

  “This was Neptune’s plan. He said it all fell into place after he spoke to Federation Council about what happened tonight.”

  “He didn’t,” I said.

  “He did. Captain Swift wants to keep details quiet from the passengers, but he ordered Neptune to call the federation and see about getting you a commendation for your role in the crisis. From what I understand, they were very interested in your act of bravery.”

  Of course, they were. Because as far as Federation Council knew, I had no place being on the ship. Neptune, the jerk, had figured out a way to have me removed from Moon Unit 5 without even having to do the dirty work himself. Worse, I was going to be arrested by the same people who had convicted and banished my dad.

  “Did they tell you who they were going to send?” I asked. Might as well start prepping now for the inevitable comments about my dad and resulting judgment and humiliation. At least if I could dig up some background on whoever was joining us, I’d be able to prepare a defense.

  “Yes. The Council is sending their youngest member, Vaan Marshall.”

  I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. If that was true, Neptune had made a bad decision. Vaan was the one person who would know I’d gotten the post on board the ship through possibly illegal methods. Before he’d gone straight and been accepted onto Federation Council, he was a better hacker than I was. In hacking, just like in love, Vaan Marshall taught me everything I knew.

  12: New Problems

  At the mention of Vaan’s name, Cat’s eyes glowed and he eeked out an automated meow. Purser Frank jumped. He looked at the robotic cat on the table. Cat jiggled from foot to foot. I was pretty sure a coil had broken inside of Cat, which kept him from actually moving forward or back. I picked him up and covered his solar panel. His eyes went dark, and the vibration stopped.

  I hadn’t talked to Vaan since the breakup. It was inevitable that we’d see each other again because that’s how these things went. It was just my luck that our reunion would take place while I was little more than a blackmailed stowaway on a spaceship with a murderer. It didn’t get much worse than that.

  I thanked Purser Frank for escorting me to my quarters and then said goodnight. It had been a long day, and I wanted to change out of my now mangled blue evening dress. I doubted there would be any more opportunities for me to dress for dinner, so it didn’t much matter that this particular outfit was beyond repair.

  After changing into my sleeping uniform, a loose-fitting jumpsuit with the same Moon Unit insignia that had been on my working uniform, I pulled covers back from the bed and slipped between them. The bedding was made of a new synthetic fabric that adjusted to individual body temperatures within five seconds. The designers of the Moon Unit series of ships had considered every way possible to keep the crew’s supplies lightweight so paying passengers could bring whatever they felt they’d need to make their stay comfortable. Because of that, my room was compact. In addition to the bed, there was the white table where Cat sat, a matching chair, and the closet unit. My orientation packet had arrived with an empty standard-issue crew suitcase and instructions only to bring what would fit inside. Like everything else that related to the Moon Unit, the suitcase had the ship’s insignia emblazoned on the outside. The architects of the ship might have had trouble with the first four in their fleet, but the one thing they’d worked out was branding.

  The thin layer of heat-sensitive fabric on top of me adjusted to my Plunian core temperature and I closed my eyes. So much had happened in one day and I had six more to go. The last thing I remember thinking was what could possibly happen tomorrow?

  ***

  I woke to Cat’s meow on repeat. When I built him, I used parts from a broken alarm clock. The ship had been programmed to go on full light at Zulu Five, and since Cat’s operations were fueled by a solar panel, his wake-up meow had been triggered. I threw my pillow across the room at him, and he went silent. Thank the galaxy for small favors and good aim.

  The crew’s quarters had standard-issue isolation chambers where purified atoms bombarded us and prepared us for our full day of work. It was the first day that my coworkers and I would jockey for position. I had Cat to thank for the fact that I was among the first there.

  I stripped, activated the isolation chamber, and rotated for the required thirty seconds, then dressed in my day two uniform and headed to the employee lounge. A wall of food service machines offered wake-up beverages and protein packs. I inserted my ID card in front of the first machine and pressed the button. Nothing happened. I tried two more times with no success. It could have been a computer malfunction. Three little green M
artians, members of the communication crew, came in, and I stepped aside. They each activated the very machine I couldn’t get to work.

  It wasn’t a computer malfunction.

  One of the communication crew members, a friendly looking Martian with sandy blond hair and freckles, stood to the side and waved me forward. “You were here first,” he said. “Besides, I’m still deciding between blue protein and green protein. Depending on what you want, you might make my choice a little easier.”

  I stepped forward and inserted my card into the machine again. Again, nothing happened. The Martian leaned closer. “Did you break it?” he said.

  “No! No. I mean, I don’t think so. My card’s been giving me trouble.”

  “Let me see it,” he said.

  Reluctantly, I held out my card. The little green man lifted a small device from the side of his belt and fed my card into it. “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Relax. I’m checking to make sure it’s not demagnetized.”

  He held the device up and watched the screen. A series of colorful lights flashed in a somewhat random pattern, and then the machine beeped repeatedly. Two additional Martians joined him.

  “Beryn, what’s going on?” one asked.

  “I don’t know. This Plunian couldn’t get her card to work in the machine, so I scanned it.”

  Beryn kept his eyes on the screen while the other Martians stared at me. I felt like a space amoeba in a Petri dish. I wanted my card, but it was in Beryn’s machine and short of grabbing it from him and running, I didn’t know how to get it back.

  Beryn looked up. “Your card has a security flag on it. You’re being tracked.” The little green men stepped away from me, but Beryn didn’t eject my card. “I heard some of the officers talking about a crime committed on the ship yesterday. They think there’s an imposter on board.”

  This time I stepped back, away from the group. Our initial encounter had been conversational, but I knew from the BOP that if these men had reason to believe I—or anybody—was acting without Moon Unit’s mission top of mind, they were in their rights to subdue me. And even though their small Martian stature made them appear less than threatening, there was the unfortunate ten-to-one ratio that wasn’t in my favor.

  I looked around the room. Even though I’d been on the early side, the cafeteria was now near capacity, filled with over twenty crew members. My brain imprinted with the colors of their uniforms and in a second cataloged them: medical, communications, supply, and flex. Not a single face was familiar. Or friendly. I backed away from them, first one step, and then two.

  Beryn wasn’t willing to let me leave that easily. He grabbed my wrist. My nerves had turned my temperature hot and seconds after he touched my skin, he pulled his hand away. “What are you, some kind of freak?” he asked. He looked around the room. “She burned me. Who let a stupid Plunian onto the ship anyway?”

  Two other Martians grabbed my arms and held me into place. I twisted to get loose but couldn’t. Beryn pulled a spectrometer off his belt and held it up. “There’s one way to find out if you’re the impostor. Get a sample of your blood and analyze the spectrum.”

  I wriggled to free myself, but more small green hands held me from behind. The tip of Beryn’s spectrometer was a centimeter from my arm. He could pierce my skin with the flick of his thumb and gain a sample if he wanted. There was no telling what would happen to me if he did.

  13: Close Call

  “Get away from her,” said a familiar voice from the doorway. It would have scared the crap out of me if I wasn’t pretty scared already.

  Neptune.

  The men who held me in place dropped my arms. I was still thrashing about, and the sudden freedom from their grip sent me off-kilter and into Beryn. His spectrometer sent an electrical pulse through my arm. I jerked with a reactive spasm and fell.

  “She doesn’t belong here,” Beryn said after glancing at the reading.

  Neptune turned to Beryn and put his giant hand on the communication’s officer’s throat. He pushed him back through the crowd until Beryn was up against the food machines. “She’s my responsibility,” Neptune said. He yanked the spectrometer out of Beryn’s hands. Neptune grabbed my arm and pulled me off the floor, stumbling out of the cafeteria behind him. Neither one of us spoke until he had me back in my quarters.

  “What was that about?” he asked. He looked angry.

  “You. This.” I thrust my arm out in front of me to remind him of the bracelet. “Is this thing ever coming off?”

  He raised his arm like he was checking the time on his watch, spun the dial counterclockwise and pressed a small, flat button. The bracelet clicked open and fell onto the floor, narrowly missing my toe. I pulled my foot back and then bent down and grabbed the bracelet and shoved it into Neptune’s open hand. “Did you revoke my clearance?”

  “Clearance for what?”

  “For everything! I wanted to get breakfast before starting my shift, and my card didn’t work. How come? I called the bridge when I found a body in my ward. And I helped save the life of two members of the engineering crew. Everything I’ve done since I arrived has been for the good of the ship, and you know it.” I poked my index finger into his massive chest to punctuate the you-know-it. I wanted to storm away from him, but we were in my quarters, and the only place to go was the other side of the room. I crossed the small area and picked the pillow up from the floor. Cat rolled into a half circle and meowed at Neptune.

  His expression changed from anger to surprise. Both eyebrows all but jumped from down low over his eyes to up high, causing a series of creases to appear on his forehead. Moments later, his normally stern expression dropped back into place.

  “I don’t know how you know the BOP. I don’t know how you knew where the holding cell was. I don’t know how you got credentials to be on this ship in the first place. What I do know is that your skill set makes you valuable to me.”

  “We covered that when you blackmailed me. Did anybody ever tell you you’re a jerk?”

  “I’m the jerk who just saved you from a Martian lynching in the cafeteria.” He tapped the spectrometer he’d taken from Beryn. “This equipment is about to malfunction. If it had operated as expected, your spectrometer reading would have gotten you banished to the same prison where your dad is incarcerated. Or is that what you want?”

  “No,” I said somewhat stubbornly.

  “Then take this.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a flat disc. Even from a few feet away, I could tell it was my ID card.

  “You stole my ID card? The one I had was fake?” I glared at him. “Is that why mine didn’t work in the machines?”

  “It wasn’t a fake. I had it deactivated. I thought I’d get to you before you used your old card. I’m giving you a new set of credentials that put you under the security section. I pulled your background, and that’s where you belong.”

  “Why? Why protect me? Why make it look like I belong twenty-four hours after you arrested me?”

  “We’ve had too much trouble since departing. Federation Council is sending a representative. I need to know if it’s coincidence that they sent us the one person who recused himself from the vote to banish your father.”

  Neptune all but admitted he knew the history between Vaan and me. Great. Now there would be no pretending we were strangers.

  “Next time you want to know something about me, try asking. There’s no need to use the ship’s computer for background checks on half-breed daughters of criminals.”

  He slapped the new ID card on the table. “I expect to see you in security section by Zulu Seven. Make sure you’re wearing the right uniform.” He turned around and left.

  I waited until the doors swished shut behind Neptune to look at my new identification card. It had the same picture as my old one. To the right of my picture was my name, and under that were the words “Security Section.” I flipped the card over. On the back was the magnetic strip that activated the vending machine
s, along with a small gold chip that gave me additional classifications. It was heavier than my old ID. According to what I’d learned while studying about the Moon Unit, only crew members with senior clearance had cards with chips. General ID cards were disposable and deactivated between flights.

  Well, well. Neptune was still a jerk, but he was a jerk who had given me senior level clearance.

  I put my pillow on the bed and put Cat on the pillow. Time to go to the uniform ward and change my outfit—and sneak one of the protein bars I’d hidden in the cabinet next to the BOP.

  The morning encounters in the cafeteria had left me feeling self-conscious. It was one thing to have trouble with my ID card. It was quite another to be called names and surrounded by fellow crew members who appeared ready to turn me in. The trip to the moon was going to be a lonely one if I didn’t make some friends. At the rate I was going, things were looking bleak.

  The uniform ward was how I’d left it. Closet doors open, garments spilling out onto the floor. Neptune had told D’Nar that he’d take over the uniform ward duties, but he’d left it a mess. If the responsibility was still linked to me, I didn’t want to leave things like they were. I located the key for the higher command level uniforms, found my size (black with gold collar and insignia) and set it on the counter next to the button that hailed the bridge. I repacked the closet. When I finished, I closed and locked the cabinet doors, and started to change.

  I unzipped my magenta uniform and stepped out of it, tossing it onto the floor. I laid the black and gold uniform in front of me and undid the zipper down the back. The doors opened, and two men walked in. Too late to pull on the uniform, I grabbed it and held it up to conceal my mostly naked body.

  The effort was pointless. Captain Thaddeus Swift was too much of a gentleman to comment on my inappropriate attire, and Vaan Marshall, the captain’s companion, had already seen it.

  14: Vaan