“Spoon, coffee, please,” Lucinda called out. She and Savanna sat alone in the mess hall half an hour later. “That’s a bit more than a scratch, Sav. A bit deeper, and he would have hit a big vessel.”
“It’s nothing.”
“What do you think Cyrus has been up to?”
“I have a couple of ideas, the worst of which occurred to me when I saw you.”
“I can bring out the worst in people.”
“Do you want a contest?” Savanna sipped the hot, dark beverage from a fired mug, one of the few noncomposite items on the ship. She inhaled the steam through her nostrils in a deep breath, held it in for five seconds, and then let out a long, slow sigh.
“His statement about dust was disturbing,” Lucinda said.
“I’m worried about his course correction, the one to avoid the comet.”
“You didn’t double-check it?”
“Not very carefully. I had no reason to suspect he would do anything wrong. Self-preservation, you know.”
Lucinda reached over and grasped the top of Savanna’s muscular shoulder. “Damn! We need to check it out now.” They both stood and headed toward the door. “I hope you’re wrong. Because, if you’re not, it is going to be ugly.”
“A correction now might be too late.”
“Doing nothing isn’t in my psyche profile.” Lucinda stood up with her fresh coffee. “Or yours. Let’s get up to CAC where we can check this out faster.”
“You are leaving without breakfast, hon. Is my cooking that bad?” Spoon wheeled in behind them.
“I just came for coffee. I’ll be back for foie gras later.”
“Phooey! Such graw-titude.”
“We’re in a hurry, Spoon. Trying to save your life.”
“Oh me, oh my. I wasn’t sure if I had a life,” it said in an overdone Southern United States accent as they waited for the lift. “So noble, so brave. My heart swells in pride.” One of its arms clanked loudly as it hit its front panel. “Ah am so proud of you, the both of you, for your dedication and sacrifi—”
The door of the lift closed, and they smiled at each other for the first half of the ascent.
“Working lights,” Lucinda said, and the room lit up. She hurried to the pilot’s station and sat in the commander’s chair. She tapped and punched, activating voice commands. “List activity for Cyrus Paria in the last week.”
It produced a list of engineering functions, recreation, lists of data and pilot activity.
“Search pilot’s log.”
Savanna sauntered to the opposite side of the room as Lucinda tapped.
“What do you see, Lucinda?”
“I can’t look. It requires a password.”
“What?” Savanna hurried over to the screen and looked. “Scoot over.” She reactivated voice command and spoke. “Authenticate Commander Savanna De Clerq, Seven Iota omicron nu.” An oblong visor appeared. Savanna looked into it, both eyes wide until there was a green flash.
“Authentication verified. Proceed.” The computer spoke.
“Access pilot’s log for actions by Paria.”
The log appeared on the screen. Savanna studied it with furrowed brow. “Display hazard and plot current course.” A three-dimensional display appeared. Stars were displayed in various intensities, and an amber fuzzy band crossed the screen from the upper left to the lower right corner. A small blue circle was in the center of the amber zone. “Display hazard and previous course.” The blue circle changed to a line that pierced the outer edge of the debris field.
“Damn it! It looks like he changed course to go through the densest part of the tail. He is hell bent on killing us all.”
“I wish I had been wrong,” Savanna said. “Take another station and see if you can get a more accurate estimate of distance while I plot a turn.”
Twenty-two minutes later, the data had been collected and confirmed and a new course set. It would take over twenty-four hours to complete the first turn. The closest portion of the rubble was less than two days away.
“Do you think we caught this in time, Savanna?”
“We have a narrow margin. Hard to say.”
“If not, we’ll never know.”
Savanna looked at her for a clarification. Lucinda put her ten fingers together and simulated an explosion. “Poof!”
“Had we found this a few hours later, it would not be possible to avoid the entire debris field.”
“Now, Sav, why do you think Cyrus sabotaged the course correction?”
“He said he was going to be saved. Then he made some crack about group sex that was so off the wall that I couldn’t connect it to anything. Lola did and sounded the alarm.”
“It still makes no sense to me.”
“He said we were all going to die at least a dozen times. I think some religious notion that gave him a reason to end it now and save tension of waiting for destruction, probably that he’ll be saved in heaven, his imaginary afterlife, if he destroys us all. Or maybe if he ends the mission. Either way.”
Tears welled in her eyes. Lucinda summoned Ivanna, stroked her short, black hair and then hugged her. After a minute, Savanna sniffed up her sadness, straightened, and said just above a whisper, “We need to neutralize Cyrus, who is a proven danger to the crew and the mission.”
Lucinda looked at her locator screen, seeing Cyrus in Medical and Maricia and Raul appearing as one bright signal. “He is probably still recovering, maybe back at full strength. You should lock him out of all computer access, out of Engineering and floors five through seven.”
“I did that before I went to the mess.”
Ivanna entered. “You made another course correction, Commander. Is there a problem?”
“She had to correct an error made by Cyrus.”
“You summoned me here for psychological support, then?”
“I did.”
After a minimal pause, she waved her hand and moved toward the door. “You have it covered, Lucinda. I’ll get back to Medical in case Mr. Paria needs more restraint.”
“I think we should give him some bromazolam decothal,” Lucinda suggested. “That will enable you to analyze his thought patterns and do their psychiatric analysis. It will also keep him from a total rage. I really don’t want another Parambi debacle.”
“Agreed,” Ivanna said.
“He is now a prisoner to be restrained and not allowed any access to any hardware devices,” Savanna said.
“Yes, ma’am. Is that all?” Both women nodded. Ivanna left.
“I’m sorry, Savanna.” Lucinda paused with indecision. “Let me take the lead on this, you know, because of your relationship.”
“That would be good, Luc. Bring Maricia and Raul up to speed. I’m going to add some additional security to the pilot program to make certain he is locked out.”