by J. N. Chaney
“But I’m not a suit,” I said, then flicked my hand at Stacy. “And I sure as hell ain’t no spy.”
“Special Agent,” she corrected.
“No, you’re not,” said Elon. “But that doesn’t mean you’re not valuable.”
11
“Before we begin, we all know who you are,” Elon confessed. “Stacy had her questions when you assisted her in the alley, and it was confirmed when she looked up your history. It was acknowledged once more when we took in the gang member sent to kill Ricky. He had a lot to say about you too.”
“Wonderful,” I said, looking over at Stacy with a grimace. “You didn’t really need my help in that alley, did you? I mean, you could have taken those thugs yourself.”
“I was about to when you showed up,” Stacy agreed. “I couldn’t blow my cover, and you looked more than capable, so I let you be my knight in shining armor. It was kind of nice. Also, sorry for tasing you in the pen. I thought you were a Disciple.”
“Yeah, it happens, I guess,” I said. “Well, maybe it doesn’t, but it’s fine.” Now that I had everyone’s attention, I decided I needed a few answers. “What was that holo card you dropped in the alley? Your badge or something?”
“Undercover, we don’t carry badges, but it contained information I had collected, and I was going to drop it off to Elon and Arun,” Stacy said. “If those thugs had gotten their hands on it, my cover would have been blown.”
Looking back on it, the only reason I was even on Orion right now was because I’d stuck my neck out for Stacy in the first place—someone who didn’t even need my help. The irony in that wasn’t lost on me.
“If you’re done with your questions, we should move on. A plan to catch the saboteur we have on board needs to be hatched,” Arun said, reeling everyone back in.
“Just one more question,” I said.
Arun looked at me, giving me permission to go on.
“There was a satchel or a leather case of some kind left behind by the Disciple. I only saw it for a second, but it was by the pen with those wolf-dog things. What was it?” I asked. “Was the plan to poison the animals so we wouldn’t have them on Kronos Five?”
“That would have been my guess as well,” Elon said, anger smoldering in his eyes. “But I’m afraid the plan you stumbled upon is much darker than it initially appeared.”
“The satchel you saw was filled with a violent strain of rabies,” Iris interjected, picking up the conversation. “We believe the plan was to possibly inject all the animals with the strain, not just the canines, and let them loose on the ship.”
My mind went wild with images of animals foaming at the mouth as they burst from the cargo bay. This Disciple was sick, and it made me wonder what his next move would be. Anyone who could even consider doing that had to be out of their mind.
“So where do we start?” I asked.
“He or she had access to the cargo bay,” Arun mused, lowering her eyes. “We can start there. We may even be able to narrow it down by seeing who was granted access to the bay this morning. Iris?”
Iris blinked her bright blue eyes. “I can bring up all of that information for you as requested, but looking at the data right now, I believe I have a theory.”
“What’s that?” Elon asked.
“It is more likely that the Disciple used whatever cloaking technology they had to slip in alongside someone else. The logs show thirteen people checking in and out of the cargo hold this morning before Mr. Slade arrived.”
“None of this is to leave this room,” said Elon, rather insistently. “Not until Iris has time to run a more thorough investigation.”
“Elon and I will continue our efforts here with Iris while you and Stacy work separately on another leg of the investigation,” Arun said, looking at me to see if I would disagree.
I did.
“Boss Creed might have a few things to say about that, and I’m a mechanic not an investigator,” I said, trying to piece together the events that had led me to this point.
“He’s telling the truth,” Stacy said with a shrug. “Maybe he’s not the best asset to put into the field. I mean, I work best alone and—” She paused. “Well, look at him. He’s kind of a mess.”
“We’ll ask Boss Creed to send you two on a special assignment fixing something on the higher levels,” Elon stated as if he had already thought about this and come up with the solution. “And you’re both wrong. He’s the perfect person to help you, Stacy.”
“You possess more hand-to-hand training experience than anyone on the Orion,” Arun said, picking up where her brother left off. “And I won’t send one of our best into the field alone. Not now, when we know for certain there is a Disciple on board.”
“A cloaked Disciple at that,” Iris chimed in.
“The only people who know about Stacy’s cover are the five of us, Doctor Allbright, and the Civil Authority Officers on this ship.” Elon looked at me with concern in his eyes. “It is paramount we keep it this way.”
“I’m not saying anything,” I said, lifting my arms in a sign of surrender. I immediately regretted the action as another wave of agony washed over my left rib cage.
“Speaking of the good doctor, we’ll send her in here right away to get you looked at,” Elon said, heading for the door. “You and Stacy both have access to our quarters if you should need anything.”
Iris followed behind Elon. Instead of using the door, she traveled right through the wall itself. I knew Cognitives were capable of phasing in and out of physical objects, but it was still weird seeing it firsthand.
“You two be careful,” Arun said, stopping at the door as she turned to leave. “The Disciple tried to attack us a day into our journey. You can bet he or she will try again.”
With that, the trio was gone. I stood in the room looking over at Stacy with an arched eyebrow.
“What?” she asked, tilting her head down and looking up at me with those big brown eyes. “You want me to say I’m sorry or something? It’s my job.”
“Naw, I get that,” I said. “I’m just debating whether I should be able to tase you back to be fair and all.”
“What?” Stacy scrunched her brow and shook her head. “No way. When I tased you, I thought you were a Disciple. Anyone could have made that mistake. And, for the record, when I found you hunched over that pen of canines, you looked super guilty.”
“I think you’re mistaking guilt for what a concussion looks like,” I answered back. “Speaking of that, you should know the Disciple is strong and really knows how to fight. They were precise with their attacks, and each blow felt like a sledgehammer.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound promising,” said a voice from the door. Doctor Allbright entered the room with her data pad in one hand and a motherly expression on her lips. “Mr. Slade, what were the chances that we’d meet again?”
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it's not the last time you’re going to see him either.” Stacy found a stool tucked into the corner of the room and plopped herself down. “This one is accident-prone.”
“‘This one,’” I said, repeating Stacy’s new name for me, “was fine until he stumbled across what he thought was an innocent mechanic getting mugged. Turns out, you’re neither of those things.”
Stacy just grinned at that.
“My goodness, you must be in a serious amount of pain.” Doctor Allbright ran the Med-Aid across my ribs and face. “Mild concussion, bruised ribs, and a laceration inside of your mouth.”
“Sounds about right,” I said.
Doctor Allbright went to work on me with the help of the Med-Aid.
When she gave me a mild sedative, I didn’t fight her.
“All due respect, Doc, but I think I’ll let the inside of my mouth heal on its own,” I said, looking at her right hand as she tried to open my jaw to insert the device. “I’m not too excited about opening wide for that thing.”
“Understood,” Doctor Allbright said, then lift
ed the side of my shirt to look at my ribs. She frowned at what she saw. “If you remove your shirt, I’ll be able to use the Med-Aid to speed the healing process along.”
I complied, moving my long-sleeved shirt gingerly over my head. With each new motion, I bit back the need to grunt in pain.
Both women’s jaws dropped when I uncovered myself. I wished all of their drooling had been about my abs, but I had picked up more than a few scars over the years. Surgeries, fights, and accidents had taken their toll across my body, painting a canvas of pain that shocked most people.
“You can take a picture while you’re at it,” I told them. “We can put it in a nice frame too.”
Stacy looked away. Heat rose to her face.
“Yes, sorry.” Doctor Allbright moved the Med-Aid to my side. A warm feeling came from the machine, not quite burning but hot enough to notice. “We’ll be done in a moment.”
When the doctor was through, I waved goodbye and thanked her for the help. It surprised me to find her on the ship, but I supposed it made sense, considering she’d been a little overqualified to be the on-site doctor for our little construction site. Had she been stationed there to simply wait her turn to leave?
Stacy cleared her throat, getting back to business as soon as Allbright was gone. “We should head up to the tech floor and talk to someone about the cloak our Disciple is wearing. See if we can get any information that would help find this person.”
“Right,” I said, getting to my feet. “I could probably use a blaster, by the way.”
“Yeah, right,” Stacy said with a laugh, throwing me an amused smile. “No way you’re getting your hands on one of those.”
12
The Orion was truly a masterpiece. With one hundred thousand Transients on board, two Eternals, and a Cognitive, you’d think the moon-shaped ship would be cramped, but it wasn’t. Three hundred levels, ranging from cafeterias to sleeping quarters and recreation areas, filled the ship.
As Stacy and I made our way from the medical level, she whipped out the same red holo card I had seen her drop in the alley. She swiped it in front of a waiting elevator. Without pause, the cylinder-shaped lift dinged open.
“Nifty little card you got there,” I said, motioning to it. “Give you access to the whole ship?”
“All access whenever I need it and no stops along the way,” Stacy said, punching in our destination on the holo-screen in front of her.
A moment later, the elevator doors closed and we were moving. The same tech that aided the inertial dampeners in propelling us through space while standing still made the feeling of the speeding elevator feel, well, like not moving at all.
“I’m going to guess the chances of me getting one of those cards is…” I allowed my voice to trail off.
“Maybe if you joined the Civil Authority Force on Kronos Five, I could see about getting you a blaster and a holo card,” Stacy said, eyeing me as if she was expecting my answer.
“Me? A suit?” I said, shaking my head. I ran a hand through my hair. “No way. I mean, I appreciate all you do, but trying to police a new colony on an alien planet is not my idea of a fun job.”
“Shame, you’d look nice in a suit.” Stacy shrugged as the elevator doors opened in front of us. “Listen, let me do the talking. I don’t want you to spook the head technician. He’s sort of an oddball.”
The way Stacy said “oddball” told me all I needed to know. Whoever we were about to see was a straight-up loony. That was fine. I had a running theory that we were all a bit broken and crazy in our own ways. Anyone who denied that was just lying to themselves or trying to hide who they truly were.
The elevator dropped us off in a hall alongside the doors of another dozen elevators. I followed Stacy to the left, where the level opened into a large waiting room area. There was soft carpet underfoot with chairs and even a fresh assortment of flowers on the table next to a pile of reading material.
Stacy made her way to a desk with a holo-screen. There was no one present, receptionist or otherwise. Stacy opened the display, scrolling down the names of technicians and workers until she stopped on a Doctor James Wong. She tapped the name, opening a line of communication.
“Doctor James Wong’s office. How can I help you?” a cheery female voice asked over the line.
“Hello,” Stacy began in a rather cheery voice of her own. “My name is Stacy Wilson. I need to speak with the doctor. It’s an important matter straight from the Eternals.”
There was a pause on the other line.
“Are you still there?” Stacy asked.
“Yes—yes, I’m sorry,” the woman recovered. “Doctor Wong is in the middle of his designated resting period. He doesn’t like to be disturbed, but if it’s a matter from the Eternals—may I confirm the request?”
Stacy reached for her holo card again, tapping it a few times before swiping it across the open channel on the larger holo on the desk.
“I see,” the woman on the other end said. “Please, just give me a moment to wake him. You may proceed all the way down the hall and make a right when it dead ends. His office will be on your left.”
The line closed. A quick second later, there was a click at the door, leading deeper inside. I followed Stacy as we strode toward what I hoped would be answers.
The technician floor was nothing like I’d imagined. No cubicles or closed doors, and no privacy at all. As far as I could see in every direction, there were teams of technicians in white lab coats and white aprons hard at work in glass rooms divided by narrow walkways.
It was hard to say what they were working on, as different teams in different rooms seemed to be handling a variety of projects at once. Behind goggles and gloves, they worked on advancements I had no doubt we would need once we reached Kronos Five.
I saw one group on my left, working on something that looked like a high-tech lawn mower, while another team of two struggled on my right with a sort of black goopy substance.
“Makes you wonder what they didn’t have time to complete since the launch date was moved up,” Stacy said as we strode forward. “I mean, unless they had everything ready to go in advance, it’s likely they launched without even being ready.”
“Nice thoughts to keep me company at night,” I growled. “The real you is just a ray of sunshine.”
“Ah, you’re sweet.” Stacy beamed, looking back and batting her eyes before continuing forward.
We made it down the first hall and turned to the right. Obeying the instructions we had been given a moment before, we looked to our left, where a glass room opened. There was a perky receptionist that looked a bit nervous in a smaller outer chamber.
Another glass wall showed the view of an older man with his feet propped on his desk and some kind of mask over his face.
“I told him you were coming with business straight from the Eternals,” the receptionist said. She stood from her desk, wringing her hands. She was nervous and not good at hiding it. “He’s awake, even if he looks like he’s not. He’s just pretending to be asleep to see if you will leave him alone.”
“How annoyingly delightful,” Stacy said.
The woman tried a nervous laugh then stopped halfway through. She looked over at me with that same strange smile. There was something in her eyes I couldn’t quite place.
Stacy didn’t waste any more time. She crossed the room and let herself into the glass office. The place was a pigsty. There were food wrappers and containers littered all over the ground, with a few used shirts and data cards. It looked like the nerdiest man alive had gone on an education bender in the two days we’d been in space.
“Doctor Wong?” Stacy asked.
The balding man behind the desk didn’t move. A black night mask covering his eyes hid any indication whether he had seen us or not.
“Excuse me, Doctor Wong?” Stacy said a bit louder. She took a step closer. “We’re here on order of the Eternals to ask you a few questions.”
He didn’t move, but a stead
y snoring came from his thin lips. Not like real snoring, but the kind of noises you make when you want someone to think you’re sleeping.
“Okay, rise and shine,” I said, moving past Stacy. I swatted at the man’s polished dress shoes propped up on his desk.
His feet came off their resting place as he swung around in his chair. He grabbed at his mask as he lost balance, wobbling to try and stay seated.
“How awfully rude!” he said, finally removing his mask and staring at me defiantly. Reaching among the debris of packaged food wrappers and papers on his desk, he grabbed a pair of thin, wire-framed glasses and perched them on his small nose.
He glared at me, darting his eyes up and down, taking in my less than impressive clothing. He blinked a few times, turning to Stacy.
“What is it that you want? You are interrupting my personal time, and when Doctor Wong doesn’t get his nap, he gets angry.”
“Well, when you see Doctor Wong, tell him this will only take a few minutes of his time,” Stacy said, producing her magical holo card once more. “I have orders from the top to speak to you.”
“What are you? Civil Authority, here on the Orion? No, you’re not wearing uniforms.” Doctor Wong drummed perfectly manicured nails across his glass desk. “No, you’re something else, aren’t you?” He studied her for a long moment, narrowing his eyes before smacking the desk. “Consider my attention grabbed. What is it that I may do for you, Mr. and Mrs.…?”
“My name is Stacy Wilson, and this is my—associate, Mr. Slade,” she said. “We’re here on behalf of the Eternals, working on an issue they have.” She walked over to the desk and leaned down so she was eye level with Doctor Wong. “What do you know about personal cloaking devices?”
Doctor Wong’s eyes widened. He looked to Stacy and then at me.
“Hey, don’t give me that look. The lady asked you a question,” I said.
“Are you serious?” Doctor Wong asked Stacy.
“Dead serious,” Stacy replied.