Leigh emerged from the galley carrying a cup of pseudojo and a tray with her breakfast and made her way across the room toward the lift cage. From her body language, she knew she had lost several points in popularity amongst the crew. She was right, but Ethan also knew he had to swallow his feelings and make peace with her, if this was ever going to work out in any way other than a disaster.
Waving, he called to her and then waited for her to realize it was an invitation to join him. She made her way over and stood there holding her food until he gestured toward the seat across from him. “Please. Join me,” he said.
She cocked her head to the side, but sat her tray on the table and lowered herself into the chair.
“I want you to understand that I know you are just doing your job,” he said. “It’s your ass on the line if you don’t do it.”
She nodded.
“Nuko told me that you were trying to figure out how to keep this from blowing all kinds of sidewise. And for that I thank you.”
“Ethan,” she started, pushing herself back into her seat with the edge of the table. She locked her elbows in place as she chewed over her words. Finally, she let out a sharp breath. “I don’t want to ruin you. Honestly you are one of the better captains with CSL, and I do like you.”
“I try,” he said, picking up his own coffee and grimacing as he took a sip. Rene still hadn’t fixed the VAT.
Relaxing a bit, she flipped the lid off her breakfast and poked at it with a fork. “Most Triple-Cs are lucky to hold a posting for eighteen months, but you’ve run a spotless operation for the three years I’ve been with you. I know that’s not an easy thing to do, and it’s why I’ve been aboard this long. It’s also why I’m so surprised that this situation has gotten so far out of spec.”
He nodded, glancing over to where Elias was heaving one of the bigger pieces of gear onto a worksled. Rene was watching and being careful not to even get within an arm’s reach of the equipment after he’d been told not to touch anything where Leigh might see it.
“I’m trying to clean up the mess if I can,” he said.
“I understand from talking to Rene that you don’t know how they got access in the first place,” she said.
He nodded. “Somehow, Elias was able to circumvent the optics in several portions of the ship. Short of tying him to a chair and beating him with a stick, we don’t have any way of knowing how he did it.”
Her eyes got big at the mere suggestion of it and he laughed. “I was kidding. For the most part.”
She wobbled her head in a vague circle like she was trying to figure out if he was serious or having a go with her. “I want to state categorically that torturing a passenger definitely counts as damaging cargo. And a bunch of other laws and stuff we don’t even want to imagine. Even talking about it might be against company policy.”
He snapped his fingers and winked at her. “That’s no fun.”
“Together Marti and Rene can’t figure out what he did?”
“Not a clue,” he said. “There are only two ways he could have done it, and neither of them is likely to be within the realm of possibility.”
“So what’s to stop them from breaking back into the cargo if they want?”
“Once they’re done packing it out we’re pulling the interconnect and powering the containers down,” he said. “Once that’s done Rene will disconnect the power to the tube and lock the breakers out. Without a cutting torch he won’t be able to re-extend the corridor and the only way in then will be in an EVA suit or with this.” He pulled a small silver disk from his pocket and tapped the side. A jagged edged flange popped out.
“That looks like an antique lockset piece,” she said, picking it up to examine it.
“I had Rene fabricate the locks and the key last night after I ordered them to put their crap away,” he said.
She handed the key back, but he shook his head. “You keep it. We don’t need it to lock the breakers down and then once that’s done you’re the only one in the universe that can extend the interconnect back.”
“Without a cutting torch,” she added.
“And using a torch in engineering would set off every environmental alarm on the ship,” he said. “It’s not foolproof, but it will slow them down enough that we can get in there and stop them before they sin again.”
“How long do you think it will be before you lock it down?” she asked, dropping the key into the front of her thinskin and letting it settle to an intimate position where no one would consider chasing it.
“They’ll have everything put back in the cargo modules by late this evening,” he said “Long before the Magellan gets here.”
“The Magellan? That’s a multicruiser isn’t it?” she asked. “Why are they sending so much muscle this far out?”
“Yah it is,” he confirmed, surprised she’d know the name of a FleetCom naval vessel. “Unless something happens, it’ll drop into the system tomorrow morning and rendezvous with us by late firstshift. As to why, it might have just been the nearest asset they had in the Cygnus Sector, but I can only guess what it was doing clear out here.”
“Did they tell you what they wanted you to do?” She picked up her drink and sniffing it, blinked several times before she decided to pass.
“They ordered us to stay put and not return to the surface under any circumstances. They want us to monitor for signals or life signs.”
“If we detect any, then what?” she asked.
“Captain MacKenna said we need to report it to them before we’d go down.”
“If that implies they’d expect us to go back to the surface to investigate, then it doesn’t matter what they want.”
“I know,” he said, nodding and holding up his hand. “That’s a mistake I won’t repeat.
“Good,” she said.
“Also, in that regard I can safely say Dr. Caldwell did manage to clear us all medically,” he said, smiling. “So at least there isn’t a problem with exposure.”
“Exposure is a legal term too, you know,” she said. “There might not be a contagion issue, but there is still a real issue of legal risk.”
He nodded. “Though I’d be willing to wager that might not be as bad as you think.”
“They cracked the seal on the cargo,” she said. “There is no way that is not a big stink.”
“Do you know what the cargo is?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I’ve read the manifest. It’s all medical gear and supplies. I don’t know what most of it does, but I know med-tech is all valuable, and easily moved on the underground. That means we’re in a dangerous area here if anything comes up missing.”
“It’s research equipment,” he said.
“Alright, but that’s still not hard to redirect to the dark economy,” she said.
“Probably not in this case,” he said, fighting not to grin despite the gravity of the situation.
“She raised an eyebrow, but waited for him to fill in the missing data.
“Dr. Caldwell is a research associate at the Shan Takhu Institute.” He paused to let that sink in. “And we did pick up the cargo modules at Armstrong Station.”
“Are you saying that’s…?”
He nodded. “Alien hardware.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of alien tech being transported out of Zone One. Especially on a commercial carrier.”
“No doubt,” he said. “She told me and then Rene confirmed it. All I know is when she tried to explain the scan she did to prove we were clean, I got lost in the first sentence. So did Preston and although he’s no doctor, he works hard to keep up on medical science.”
“Yah, he’s a good kid,” she said absently. The realization of what they were actually carrying seemed to be more distressing to her than it was intriguing. She set her fork down and twisted to look at where they were crating another piece of equipment.
“It apparently takes a certain level of highly unique understanding to ev
en hook it up. The way I see it, that means hardware like that is not something that would move well in the underground,” he said.
“Maybe,” she said. “Or it makes it priceless.”
“The other factor here is that although Smythe Biomedical bankrolled her work, the cargo really is hers,” he said. “Smythe chose not to list her as steward on the manifest because it would be like painting a target on her. Without her, the hardware is mostly useless junk, and without the junk, she’s just another doctor.”
“Yah, that’s not too uncommon,” she said.
“At least the shipper won’t be likely to press criminal charges against us for letting her have access,” he said.
“Probably not, but it doesn’t end the problem.” She leaned into her hand and massaged her forehead. “You are right that they likely won’t be coming after you for internal piracy charges, although you’re looking at a severe violation of company policy, regardless.”
“I’m still working on that one.”
“Like I said, you’re a good captain and I haven’t finalized my report yet. When I do file it, I’m going to try to make it as gray as I can, to give you some wiggle room. If you can find a good reason for taking a potential risk, then maybe they will just rub your nose in it and put you in the corner for a while.” She shook her head. “Unfortunately, mitigating circumstances after the fact is a damned feeble excuse, and a lousy defense.”
“One stone at a time,” he said.
Chapter Eleven:
The shadow of Shadetree crawled across the surface of Starlight as a blotch of darkness, blotting out the blistering heat. The view out the forward view screen should have been fascinating, but instead it seemed like a giant empty hole in reality. The front edge of the eclipse had just reached the colony and Ethan stared at it, hoping to see the lights of the colony coming on in response to the miniature nightfall, but instead there was nothing.
“We’re still not getting anything from the surface?” He knew the answer, so the question was pointless.
“No,” Marti said.
“We’ve listened continuously since we got here,” Nuko said, shaking her head. “I keep hoping that someone will send up a flare or something. Anything.”
He nodded.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like for Kaycee and Elias,” she said. “Not knowing if their families are dead has to be horrible.”
He nodded again. Suddenly the front edge of an idea formed in his mind. “Maybe we’re coming at this wrong. We’ve been looking for signs of life. Maybe we should be looking for signs of death.”
“What?”
“We can look for secondary indicators that might imply there was something wrong” he said.
“Our sensors are extremely specialized, Captain,” Marti said. “We can scan electromagnetically and gravitationally to a high resolution, but we have limited sensor definition in other areas.”
“I know that,” he said. “But we do have the capacity to measure chemical composition of the atmosphere, don’t we?”
“We have a basic environmental kit,” Nuko said.
He nodded. “Bad as it sounds, dead things produce methane.”
“The resolution of the scanning technology would be insufficient to detect the methane produced by a decomposing body,” Marti said.
“Yah, but a hundred thousand bodies sitting in an oven would produce a lot of it,” the captain said. “We know what the atmosphere down there is supposed to be composed of, so if we do the highest accuracy scan we can, shouldn’t we be able to pick up elevated levels of things not supposed to be there?”
“Captain, I believe your proposal has scientific merit,” it said, almost sounding embarrassed at missing the obvious.
“We’re still sitting close to the barycenter between the planets,” Nuko said. “It would help to drop into a low orbit and make several sweeps over the colony to increase our scanning accuracy.”
“It would increase the resolution exponentially,” Marti said.
“Then let’s do that and see if we can get some answers,” he said.
Nuko pulled her seat up to her console and then paused. “Leigh will know we’re moving the ship as soon as I fire up the engines to change orbit,” she said. “She’s on a thin edge. Do you think this might knock her over again?”
“Probably.” Ethan pushed back in his chair and drummed his fingers on the edge of his console. “Do it anyway. I’ll explain it to her, if she goes sidewise.”
“It beats sitting on our thumbs,” she said as she punched in the course heading and powered up the engines.
“I don’t have thumbs,” Marti said.
“Just work with me you silly girl,” Nuko said, shaking her head.
“How many orbits will it take to—?”
“Captain Walker, why are we moving the ship?” the Triple-C said over the open comm. Her voice echoed throughout the ship.
That didn’t take long, he thought, shaking his head.
“We’re doing a couple recon orbits over the colony to see if we can detect any changes in the environment,” he said back over the com before he sat down in his seat and switched her to a private channel. “I don’t want to have this conversation on the shipwide.”
“Sorry. I didn’t know where you were, and I needed to make sure I got your attention,” she said. Her tone shifted from icy to acidic. “By what authority did you order the heading changed?”
“There’s no risk to the ship, and I decided that it might be useful to see if there were changes in the atmosphere around the colony,” he said. “If there are dead bodies down there, we’ll be able to detect methane in the air with our meteorological kit.”
“How long will it take to get the results?”
“I don’t know, but it’s going to take us several low orbits at least,” he said.
“Why did you decide to do this now?” she asked.
“Even though we’re not doing much, it might be enough to make our passengers feel like we’re trying,” he explained. It was a lie, because he hadn’t thought of it until just then, but it might make her happy. “If we can keep them thinking we’re working to get the answers they need, until the Magellan gets here, that will make it easier to keep the peace.”
She left him hang for several seconds. “I’m not sure I think moving the ship just to mollify the passengers is a good idea, but I won’t argue with you. I feel a lot safer with some distance between us and the planet.”
“Understood.” He didn’t, but one good lie deserved another.
“As soon as you’ve got enough data to work with, get us back to the transfer point.” She snapped the comm off from her end and left him chewing on the inside of his lip.
Nuko snorted. “Does she think a virus can leap from the surface and then eat its way through the hull?”
“Viruses are capable of living in a vacuum,” Marti said.
“You took a dose of literalicin this morning didn’t you?” she said. “It was sarcasm.”
“Really? I couldn’t tell,” the AA said, never missing a beat.
“Children, play nice,” the captain said.
“Hey boss, Kaycee and Elias are both asking why you’re moving the ship,” Rene said. “Has something changed down there?” The engineer was still supervising the packing up of the alien tech from the MedBay.
“Nothing that we’ve picked up, but we’re still trying,” he said. “We figured if we got closer, then some of the lower resolution systems might give us some clues.”
“Understood. You’re going to do a gas analysis,” he said. “Good thinking. Maybe you can find some more meatloaf while you’re at it.”
“Exactly,” the captain said, wrinkling his nose at the memory. “Leigh gave me a few orbits, but we’ll push it as far as we can, so maybe we can get some usable scans.”
“I’ll pass the word,” he said.
“Wait, before you jump, how much longer until they’re done?”
“Another coup
le hours or so,” the engineer said. “I can almost see the deck in MedBay now.”
“That long?” he asked. “Are they dragging boots down there?”
“They’ve been busting their spleens, but they had a lot of gear set up,” Rene said. “Pruitt told me they also have to let internal power decay before they can safely lock some of it down. I know that with the amount of power they needed to stand this stuff up, they’re smart to be cautious when they pack it away.”
“Nojo. Just keep me posted,” Ethan said, punching the comm off again. He stood back up and stretched, stifling a yawn with the back of his hand. “Before I got interrupted, twice, I was going to ask how many orbits before we will know if something stinks down there?”
“Now look who’s being literal,” Nuko said, glancing over her shoulder at him and winking.
“If we assume that everyone is dead and in the open air, we will know on the first orbit,” Marti said. “However if the death toll is not 100%, or the bodies are in partly sealed buildings, it may take several overflights.”
“And winds might affect how rapidly it dissipates,” Nuko pointed out.
“I wasn’t too far off then,” he said.
“Depending on the situation on the surface, your accuracy was surprising,” Marti said.
“Do you need me to watch the deck so you can get some time out of here?” Ethan asked Nuko.
“Oh hell no,” she said, shaking her head. “I like being away from the chaos downstairs.”
“Then if I have time to stand down before we get anything solid, I’ll be elsewhere,” he said as he turned and headed toward the door.
“You go have fun with that and if anything turns up, I know how to find you,” she said.
He needed something to eat, but he was developing an aversion to chaos too, so the mid-deck wasn’t where he wanted be. Not that there was a lot of anywhere else he could go.
Ethan ended up wasting time sitting at the desk console in his quarters going over his log files and arguing with himself about how he’d defend his decisions when Leigh’s report finally made it back to CSL headquarters. He knew it wasn’t helpful to shovel layers of stress over his frustration, but he couldn’t imagine what he was going to face when he got home. It was all pointless conjecture.
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