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I left the observation deck and took the elevator to the holding cell on the bottom floor. “Hey! Neptune!” I called out.
He seemed surprised to see me. “I told you to go to your quarters.”
“I figured something out. Come on, listen to me. If I’m right, which I think I am, then your problems are over, which means my problems are over, because you won’t need me to spy anymore so you can let me go back to my job in the uniform ward.”
“You are still in my custody. You’ll remain in my custody until the council decides what to do with you.”
“But you made a mistake. I didn’t do anything wrong! I mean, okay, there might be a problem with my application that we can straighten out at a less crucial time, but I’m not talking about me, I’m talking about Dak—the second navigation officer. He’s your problem, not me. He wasn’t supposed to be in the uniform ward.”
“Get into the cell.”
I had willfully returned to the security level to help this security ape, and he was putting me back into holding?
Neptune pointed into the cell. I didn’t have a lot of options. As soon as I crossed the threshold, he activated the beams. The heat that came off them made my lavender skin flush. I felt dizzy. I stepped farther into the cell to get away.
“You are impersonating a ship officer,” Neptune said. “That’s a second-degree offense and will be addressed by the council. It’s up to the captain to decide whether we’re going to drop you off on Colony 13 on our way to Ganymede or if it will be less disruptive to the passengers to keep you in custody and deal with you after we land.”
“I didn’t impersonate a ship officer. I never lied about who I was, and I never impersonated Daila Teron. Besides, the uniform lieutenant is not an officer. It’s general crew. No privileges, no responsibilities aside from the tasks outlined in the BOP. Yeoman D’Nar is my supervisor, just like all the lieutenants on the ship. Did you notify her to tell her you arrested me? Because I’m pretty sure that’s in the BOP somewhere. A senior officer is to be notified if one of her employees cannot perform their assignment. I can’t perform my assignment from behind fire bars. If I don’t show up, it’s a reflection on her, and you can darn sure believe I’m going to let her know.”
Neptune planted himself directly opposite me, crossing his arms and straining the fabric of his uniform. I briefly wondered if he had to have it specially made to fit his broad shoulders and massive biceps. I gave him a couple of seconds to speak. At that moment, I would have taken just about any response from him as a sign that he heard me. But he neither spoke nor moved. He stood there staring at me. Assessing me. Judging me.
“Ask Yeoman D’Nar if she hired me and she’ll say yes. She addressed my orientation packet to Sylvia Stryker and signed my letter of acceptance right below the captain’s signature.” So there, I wanted to add.
Behind Neptune, a male voice came over the intercom. “Bridge to Security. Come in, Security.”
Neptune went to the desk and hit a button. “Security, Neptune speaking.”
“Neptune, it’s Thaddeus. I need you to come to The Space Bar.”
Thaddeus! The only Thaddeus I knew about was Captain Thaddeus Swift. Neptune was on a first name basis with the captain?
“I have a security situation,” Neptune grunted in response.
The captain cleared his throat, and his voice became a little more formal. “Need I remind you that this is not a fighting vessel? It’s a cruise ship. With passengers and entertainment. There’s an open seat at First Dinner. Your presence is required. Your duties involve more than security situations. Non-negotiable. Over.”
This time Neptune glared at me. He flipped the switch that activated the beams, and instantly they disappeared. “Come with me.”
I hadn’t expected Neptune to deactivate the security measures he’d put into place. According to the BOP, if I was indeed in custody, then I was supposed to be under surveillance at all times. For whatever reason, instead of calling in reinforcements to take over, it looked like he was letting me go. Aside from the sense that I’d scored a small victory, I was just plain curious.
I stepped out of the cell, and he pointed. “Walk.”
A man of few words. I left the security area and approached the elevator. The doors swished open. I got in and crossed my arms. “I don’t know where we’re going.”
“We’re going to your quarters.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t think you want the captain to see you violating the uniform code.”
“What does Captain Swift have to do with anything? It’s probably dinner time. How’s he going to see me? Won’t he be dining with the paying passengers on board the ship?”
“We’re going to dinner at The Space Bar. It’s the first night of the journey, and Purser Frank requires a full banquet room. The second navigation officer has been unavoidably detained—” he paused, presumably to give me time to acknowledge that we weren’t mentioning the details of what had happened to Lt. Dakkar out loud—“so there’s an empty table.”
“And you’re taking his place,” I guessed. He nodded. “What does that have to do with me?”
“You’re in my custody.” He held his square plastic passkey in front of the elevator scanner. “I trust when you prepared for the journey to the moon, you packed evening attire?”
“Just get me to my quarters. I’ll figure something out.” I crossed my arms, mimicking his body language, and pouted. We both stood there for a moment.
“Floor?”
“Oh, come on. You claim to know everything else about me. You probably already snuck into my quarters and went through my luggage.”
“I’ll let you lead the way.”
“I can’t activate the elevator because you took my passkey.”
“What makes you think you need a passkey to get to your quarters?”
“Because you used your passkey to get us to the sublevels and according to the ship schematics”—oops, best not to elaborate on my knowledge of the ship’s schematics—“just use your passkey to get us to level two.”
Neptune seemed pleased. I was starting to wonder if the only time he smiled was when he caught people lying. Not a bad trait for a security officer. He pressed a series of buttons on the control panel. The doors swished shut, and the car moved sideways. I grabbed the rail to help keep my balance, too late, and bumped into Neptune. It was like bumping into a rock with a blanket wrapped around it.
“Sorry,” I said quickly. I backed away two steps and held the railing tightly until the elevator car eased to a halt.
Neptune exited first. He turned to me. “You are to stay within five feet of me at all times. If you try to get away, I will advise the captain to drop you off at Colony 13 regardless of what it means to the paying passengers. Do you understand?”
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” I said for the thousandth time.
“Do. You. Understand?” he repeated.
“Yes.”
Neptune stood back and indicated that I should lead the way. I assumed it was because he didn’t trust me and thought I’d make a break for it if left behind. I reached my door and held my hand up to the panel outside of it. The doors swished open. I turned to him. “If I’m not supposed to be on this ship, how come the doors respond to my body chemistry?”
He didn’t answer.
I went inside. On top of the table, next to a vase with a single Plunian flower, was a small robotic cat that I built when I was ten. It had turquoise ears and eyes, and when Neptune put his hand out toward it, it lifted its head and meowed. Neptune pulled his hand away in surprise. Too bad I hadn’t programmed the cat to bite.
“Don’t mind Cat. He only meows when he senses something near him that isn’t me.”
“How does it know I’m not you? Sound chip would work, but I haven’t said anything.”
“It reacts to voice and temperature.” And fingerprint, but I wasn’t going to tell Neptune that. No need to give away all my secrets. “He’s a boy.”
Neptune tipped his head and looked at Cat’s butt. “How can you tell?”
“Because he can’t have kittens.”
He raised one eyebrow.
I opened the orange cabinet that held my extra uniforms and my off-duty clothes. I never expected to get invited to First Dinner on the ship. That was a privilege reserved for officers and passengers. The rest of the crew got our meals from the food machines in the employee lounge. There was nothing in the computer about how to dress when I wasn’t working, and anything I might have found out through regular crew gossip would happen after tonight—which would be too late.
I turned and glared at Neptune. “You’re not planning on standing there while I change, are you?”
“I’ll be back in five minutes.” He swiped his hand past the door panel, and the doors swished open. “Wear the blue one,” he said over his shoulder, and left.