“Bullshit,” Reed says, jerking me back to the present.
It takes me a moment to adjust, to find myself back at the table with Reed and Max in the common room at the Tower. Instead of on that darkened bridge with Kane’s face, pale and strained behind the faceplate of his helmet. I blink rapidly, the pain of loss striking hard and anew, as if I was just there in that moment. As if I might be able to reach out and still touch Kane.
“Those were highly respected senior officers on that bridge crew, with years of loyal service,” Reed continues. “You can’t seriously expect us to believe any of this, especially on your say-so.”
The word of an obsolete, out-of-work—and obviously unstable—commweb maintenance team leader. He doesn’t say that.
He doesn’t have to.
“It doesn’t matter if you believe it,” I say tightly. “That doesn’t change the truth.”
“Before, you said you didn’t know how the Aurora ended up off course. Just that that was where you found it,” Reed says. “So, are you lying now or were you lying—”
“I knew you wouldn’t believe me,” I say, my grip on my temper slipping. “You’d have questions that I don’t have the answers to. There wasn’t any point in bringing it up.” My goal, back then, when I first entered the Tower, was simply to be left alone. But things are different now.
Max clears his throat, looking uncomfortable. “It’s a very serious accusation, Claire.”
Mutiny, he means. But it was murder, too.
“None of them were in their right minds,” I point out. “Whatever affected us, I think it affected them, too.”
Stunned silence hangs for a moment, then Reed laughs in disbelief, shaking his head. “This is just a last-ditch attempt to bolster your fictional account by dragging others into it. If some mysterious event happened to the Aurora officers first, then clearly you can’t be at fault for what happened to your crew—”
“What exactly do you think happened on the Aurora?” I demand, sitting forward. “How do you think all those people ended up dead and floating around the atrium with the environmentals shut off? Even if someone else, a random passenger, killed Gerard and Wallace, how would that person have had access to essential ship systems? To the helm?”
Reed’s mouth works for a second before any sound comes out. “Well, that’s not … we don’t have enough information—” he blusters.
“You don’t have shit,” I say, patience evaporating. “Twenty-plus years of nothing on the Aurora. You guys couldn’t find it, we did. And that’s why I’m trying to tell you what happened. Something is wrong on that ship, and it was wrong before we got there.” I jab a finger in Reed’s direction for emphasis with the last of my energy.
I sit back in my chair, feeling so very tired and ancient, like my bones might turn to dust at any point in the next few minutes. “You need to make up your mind whether you think I’m crazy or a liar,” I say to Reed. “Either way, it doesn’t matter to me. Just tell me the ship’s course heading and if you’ve heard from anyone on board.”
A silent exchange passes between Max and Reed. “You should continue, Claire,” Max says, after a moment. “We’re listening.”
“Max,” Reed objects.
The older man glares at him. “We’re listening,” he says, this time more to Reed than me. “No more interruptions.”
Behind Max, Voller appears, a shimmering spot against the wall before he takes full form. His T-shirt, one of his favorites, reads SUSPICIOUS PACKAGE in big letters, with an arrow pointing down to his crotch. Voller smirks at me, giving me a mock salute. Then I see the drill in his other hand, and I look away swiftly before he lifts it to his temple. Again. It’s always the same with Voller. I don’t know why.
The spatter of blood sounds like rain. Not the light, even rhythm, programmed for exact distribution and soil absorption, that I remember from my childhood at Ferris Outpost. This is something wilder.
I let the silence hang, trying not to stare at the spreading pool of blood on the floor. It’s creeping slowly toward Max’s worn leather shoes.
“Fine,” I say finally. I don’t know how to tell them so they’ll believe me, but it only gets worse from here.