CHAPTER SIXTEEN

John received a visit from Jeremy Hakins at his quarters early in the morning. The miner informed him that the group had agreed to meet with the captain. The meeting was set for 2130 hours that evening. It was the same time as Chris Anne’s performance at The Lounge. The meeting was to be held in maintenance corridor sixteen beta, on deck thirty-four. John reiterated to Jeremy that he would not inform anyone about the meeting. Jeremy had no doubt about that as John reiterated again how anxious he was to prove himself to the dissenters.

As the day ended and the meeting time approached, John returned to his quarters and changed into a fresh TERRA uniform. He went over everything he wanted to say to the group. Jeremy said it would be fifteen individuals there. The captain noted how they picked the most ideal spot for the meeting. The area was used for storage and contained mostly unused equipment stations. The maintenance technicians rarely visited the area.

Ready to meet with the disgruntled crew members, John made his way down to deck thirty-four. No one was around to see him open the door to the maintenance corridor and he quickly slipped inside. The corridor was dimly lit. The captain looked around but didn’t see anybody. He tried to listen for anything but there was nothing but silence inside. All he could do was walk. About halfway down he heard a noise and stopped.

“Hello?” He looked behind him but saw no one. As he turned back around he saw a group of people emerge from the darkness. Fifteen people, including Jeremy Hakins, Larry Cleveland, and Professor Donavin appeared. Half of the group were holding pulse guns. In front of the pack, also holding a weapon, was Chief Sandoval.

“Chief, what are you doing here?” asked John.

“A little slow to connect the dots, are we?” as the chief grinned. “I thought you were smart enough to figure it out already.”

John motioned to the chief’s gun. “You might want to point that away. It could go off accidently.”

Sandoval was a little surprised by John’s lack of concern. The chief chalked it up to the captain not grasping the gravity of the situation. “Humor isn’t going to save you now. With you out of the way, we’ll be able to finish the mission against the Screen and get back to Earth.”

“That’s nice,” replied John. “But I’m not going anywhere.”

Sandoval laughed. “Still the arrogant cadet. Look around you. You’re all alone. We didn’t agree to meet you to discuss terms. The only outcome of this meeting is you stepping down.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” as John folded his arms. “I have no intention of giving up command. And those guns you’re pointing at me aren’t going to change my mind.”

“Who said you have a choice?” said Sandoval as clicked the safety off his pulse gun. “Good-bye, cadet.” Sandoval pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. He pulled it again, but nothing discharged.

John cracked a smile. “Oh, I forgot to mention that Drix was in here earlier putting in a generator that emits a dampening pulse. As soon as you came in it went off. All your weapons are useless. And I didn’t come alone.”

Suddenly, an armed security detail emerged and surrounded the group of fifteen. Behind John, stepping out of the shadows, was Julie, Alex’sis, Drix, Doctor Myers, and officer Davers.

“The field also manipulated your scanners into thinking no one but your group was here,” explained John. “Oh, and their weapons do work,” pointing to Davers security team. “So I wouldn’t make any sudden moves.”

Sandoval couldn’t believe what was happening. They had planned it all so perfectly. “How the hell?”

“Simple.” John nodding to someone in the group. Professor Donavin stepped away and joined John and his people.

Jeremy was shocked, along with his compatriots. “You?”

“Professor Donavin has been feeding me information about your activities for months,” revealed John. “I believe in the spy business it’s called working as a double agent.”

“How could you after the way the captain treated you?” asked a stunned Larry.

“Our initial meeting on the command deck was unpleasant,” admitted Donavin, recalling how Roberts chastised him in front of the command deck staff the first time they met. “But he did something that changed my mind about him. He came and talked to me one on one. He wanted to establish a genuine working relationship and work out any differences we had. This cadet, who had a reputation for arrogance, was willing to concede to me that he would make mistakes on this journey and wanted my help, my expertise, to help make this mission a success. He respected the love I had for this ship and what it meant to me spending years building it. I knew then that Admiral Johnson made the right choice for this young man to command PHOENIX.”

“Keeping up our hostile relationship was my idea,” added John. “I hoped that whoever was sabotaging the ship would reach out to the professor.” John looked right at Sandoval. “And you played right into it.”

Sandoval felt humiliated. “The public arguments, your demotion, all a ruse.”

“Right now we’re rounding up your co-conspirators,” said Julie. “It’s over.”

“Once the professor told us you were the leader, it wasn’t difficult to figure out you’re the spy who was sent to the EXODUS Project,” said Alex’sis.

“We kept you out of the loop regarding legitimate security as much as we could,” said John. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t keep you out too much or risk alerting you. Because of that, the Volux died.”

“What?!” said Larry. “What’s he saying?”

“I know about the echo burst you bounced off the Cruo shuttle,” revealed John. “That’s how the Mirimiss detected the shuttle and were able to lock onto it.”

Jeremy looked at Sandoval. “You said the captain instigated the Volux against each other.”

“You wanted the captain gone,” hissed Sandoval. “You were willing to believe anything I said about him. Using you to fulfill my mission was all that mattered.”

“What was it?” asked Julie. “What was your mission here?”

“You think since I’ve been caught I’ll tell you?” said Sandoval.

Alex’sis gave the chief a perplexed look. “Why not? You’re not going anywhere and we’re going through your personal effects and logs.”

“Good luck finding anything,” replied Sandoval. John suspected that the chief didn’t have anything useful in his quarters for them to go through.

“It doesn’t matter,” said Myers. “You can’t sabotage the ship anymore.”

Sandoval emitted a sick laugh. “You were never supposed to launch the ship. We were never supposed to be out here.”

So he was embedded in the EXODUS Project to stop the ship’s launch. But the captain wanted details. “What happened? Why didn’t you try to stop the ship’s launch?”

But Sandoval didn’t hear him. The realization that he had been bested by an inexperienced cadet struck him. How could this smug, arrogant, child outsmart a man who spent his entire life in the intelligence community? The chief calculated every possibility. It was supposed to be child’s play to destabilize the crew and remove John Roberts from command.

“Officer Davers, I want these people taken to the brig,” ordered John.

Being defeated by a young cadet was too much for Sandoval to handle. He snapped and lunged for John as he lost all sense of reason. Davers quickly pointed his gun and fired at the chief, hitting him twice before Sandoval collapsed in front of John.

“No!” yelled John as Myers checked on the chief. The doctor rolled him over on his back and checked for a pulse. He looked up at John and shook his head.

“I’m sorry, captain,” said Davers.

John went over to Davers. “It’s ok. You did what had to be done.” But he was disappointed. With Sandoval dead, they would never learn who in TERRA dispatched Sandoval to the EXODUS Project, what his mission objective was, and why he never tried to stop the ship’s launch by alerting TERRA ahead of time. There was still a possibility they could find something in the chief’s logs but John suspected it was slim.

“Take them to the brig,” Julie instructed Davers.

“Hey, you alright?” Alex’sis asked John as security ushered the conspirators out of the corridor.

“I’ll be ok,” he replied. “There’s a bottle of bourbon up in my office I think I want to crack open.”

“I think we could all use a drink,” conceded Myers.

********

An hour later, Julie, Alex’sis, Kevin, Bret, and Myers were gathered in John’s office. Each had a glass of bourbon in their hands. John had recently found it in the cabinet. It was a bottle that Admiral Johnson had left behind. No one said anything as they waited for one more person to arrive.

“Come in,” said John when the door chimed.

Chris Anne rushed in. “Drix just told me what happened. Are you ok?”

“I’m fine. We’re all fine,” assured John as he handed Chris a glass.

“Oh, sweetie, I’m going to need more than one of these,” as Chris gulped his drink in one shot.

John handed him the bottle. “I guess I’m not surprised that it was Sandoval.”

“You had your suspicions about him?” asked Myers. “I know he was rough around the edges but I thought he was committed to the mission.”

“A gut instinct,” replied John. Actually, the captain knew that Sandoval was the spy. What tipped him off was how the Aldarian telepathy was leaked to the crew. Thresha told John about her race’s ability when they were alone in the lift. After the crew learned about their abilities, John went over how the information was leaked to the crew. He went back to the lift that night and went over every inch of it with a scanner and found a nano-listening device. It took over a month but he was able to identify the frequency and trace it to a relay in Sandoval’s quarters. He chose not to share this information with anyone to minimize the risk of the chief learning that John was onto him.

Alex’sis shrugged her shoulders. “Well, I hate to say it but he had me completely fooled.”

“It’s a shame we’ll never know who sent him to the project,” said Julie.

“If he was sent to spy on the EXODUS Project, TERRA would have known about our plans,” said Kevin. “Why didn’t they stop us before the launch?”

“Maybe Sandoval never sent reports to his superiors,” speculated Bret. “Remember communications outside the project was forbidden.”

Alex’sis set her glass down. “Maybe, but if he knew how to send transmissions without a communications dish, I think he would’ve figured a way to contact TERRA without being detected.”

“He could have been reporting to someone who supported our mission,” suggested Myers.

John rolled his eyes. “I have a hard time believing anyone in TERRA would have supported our mission.”

“With the chief dead, we may never know the answers to any of these questions,” said Julie.

“Maybe we’ll find out when we get back to the solar system,” said Bret. “The chief’s superior is bound to look for him when we return.”

“Sweetie, I’m no spy expert, but don’t hold your breath.” Chris looked at John. “Have you decided what you’re going to do with Sandoval’s band of rebels?”

John had thought extensively what to do with them. “If they stay on the ship they’ll have to remain in the brig. I can’t trust confining them to quarters or giving them limited access to the ship. It’s too risky. But keeping them locked up indefinitely doesn’t seem realistic either.”

“You’re thinking of putting them off the ship,” said Alex’sis. John reluctantly nodded. No one protested. Everyone felt, given the circumstances, it was the safest course of action.

“What about sending them to the trading outpost?” suggested Bret.

John shook his head. “They don’t represent who we are. I don’t want them interacting with other aliens and giving humans a bad name.”

“We can send them to the Io planet,” offered Alex’sis.

“Lieutenant,” as John shook his head.

“Sorry, but it’d serve them right.”

“Captain, there’s a life-supporting planet in the star charts the Onixins gave us that’s not too far from our current position,” revealed Kevin. “The planet was surveyed and no sentient life-forms were found.”

“Sounds good. Look into it,” ordered John as the door chimed again. “Come in.”

The door opened and Officer Davers entered, holding a DAT. “Captain, here’s the list of everyone we’ve taken into custody.”

John waved his hand to Julie. “Give it to Commander Olson. I’m not interested in looking at it tonight.”

“Twenty-eight names,” as Julie read the list. She then saw a name that caught her off-guard.

Chris noticed that something caught her attention. “You ok, sweetie?”

Julie nodded. “I’m fine.”

“There were forty protestors in Central,” pointed out Alex’sis.

“There may be people who were swayed by the conspirators but never participated in any of their subversive activities,” said Myers.

“Nevertheless, this is something I’ll need to address to the crew,” said John. “I’ll offer anyone who doesn’t want to continue on board to be put off the ship along with the conspirators. If they don’t like the way I command, they can bail out.”