| |
A sharp burst of oxygen exploded through me and I opened my eyes. For the third time in three days, I was inside the holding cell. Neptune knelt on the floor in front of me. He pulled his left hand away from my face and unballed his right fist. On his palm were three round white tablets.
“Oxygen pills,” he said. “Take one and stay put until it releases into your system.”
“You knew that canister was filled with carbon monoxide. You knew I was going to pass out.”
“You weren’t going to believe me just because I told you. It was faster to demonstrate.”
I leaned back against the wall behind the cot. The exposed concrete was cool through my thin sleep uniform. As the oxygen transmuted into my system, the feeling slowly returned to my arms and legs. The shaking stopped. My thoughts cleared. I wasn’t particularly happy about the method Neptune had used to prove to me that the navigation officer had been as much of a victim as the men in engineering, but I couldn’t fault him for his reasoning. Experience was a powerful teacher. It was lesson number two at the space academy—that we would learn more from experience than from being taught. (Lesson number one was the enemy of my enemy is my friend.)
While Vaan had spent afternoons in lecture halls memorizing charts of galaxy alliances and the profiles of past members of Federation Council, I’d been sent on carefully designed tactical missions that tested my critical thinking, loyalties to my team, willingness to sacrifice others for the greater good. It was one of the reasons I’d built Cat. I wanted to know that no matter what happened in the real world, there would be someone I could talk to in the privacy of my quarters. That my confidante was a robotic cat was the subject of much ridicule once my fellow students discovered him.
“You’re saying Lt. Dakkar died because—”
“Stop saying his name,” Neptune interrupted. “You’re violating Moon Unit protocol.”
“Fine. You’re saying the second navigation officer died because he inhaled carbon monoxide from a corrupted oxygen canister that you found in the uniform ward.”
Neptune nodded once.
“That means he was as much of a victim as the engineering crew. We’re not safe. The threat to the ship is still active.”
Neptune nodded again.
“Then what are we waiting for? Suspicion of a standing crew member is a Code Red. We have to tell Captain Swift. He has to alert the passengers and evacuate the ship. I don’t know where we are in the moon trek, but we must be approaching a space station.”
“We can’t stop the ship.”
“Why? Because Moon Unit 5 is a cruise ship and somebody doesn’t want to refund the money?”
Neptune took my hand and pulled me to my feet. He led me out of the cell, back to the computer, and this time turned the sound switch so the computer was silent. He clicked a couple of keys on the keyboard and the regulation screensaver went black. A field popped up in the middle of the screen, and he typed in his name and ID number, and then entered a string of encoded characters into ten white fields. The black screen dissolved and a news database replaced it.
“What’s that?” I asked.
Neptune looked at me, his brows drawn low over his eyes. He rolled out his chair and stood, and indicated that I should sit. Curious about this sudden change in Neptune and his willingness to share information with me, I dropped onto the molded plastic and leaned forward to read the screen.
Bulletins appeared character by character on the bottom as if someone at a remote location was typing them while events were unfolding. As new information appeared on the bottom of the screen, the existing news scrolled up and the bulletins on the top disappeared.
Space Pirates from Colony 13 have infiltrated the galaxy. Safe zones compromised.
I immediately understood why we couldn’t make an unscheduled stop. Pirates were the biggest threat to the galaxy. They operated by their own code, one that made allowances for murder, torture, theft, and kidnapping if those actions got them what they wanted. They were the same people my father had been accused of colluding with to maximize the value of our ice mine yield.
Nobody wanted to believe that Jack Stryker had been capable of entering a deal with pirates, but the evidence had been incontrovertible. Worse, he hadn’t denied the accusations. My dad had remained silent when the Space Police Corps came to the mine and arrested him and through his trial at the Federation Council. Whether or not he was talking now, I wouldn’t know. I’d never know as long as I stayed away from Colony 13.
I read what I could from the news monitor, picking out enough words to understand the magnitude of the threat. As long as we were on Moon Unit 5, we were safe. Once we stopped, we’d be a prime target. Which meant the devil we knew—the on-ship murderer and saboteur—was better than the devil we didn’t know—the violent and unscrupulous space pirates on a rampage through the galaxy.
Neptune switched the monitor to black.
“Hey!” I said. “I was reading that.”
“You read enough. We need a plan.”
“Here’s my plan. I’m going back to bed. Tomorrow morning, I’ll get up early so I can beat the Martians to the cafeteria. I’ll get my food to go and eat it in my room. When we land on Ganymede, I’ll request a transfer and take a space taxi back to Plunia.”
“You’re not going back to Plunia.” Neptune’s face was rigid.
I didn’t care if he didn’t like my attitude. At the moment I didn’t much like his. “Oh, yes I am. I want off this ship. You can find yourself another helper.”
“Did you not read the news? Those pirates are tearing up the galaxy. Any attempt to land will put the safety of every passenger on this ship in danger. If conditions don’t improve, we’re not going to land on Ganymede. We’re not going to land anywhere. You’re stuck on this ship whether you like it or not.”
“We have to land eventually. There’s only enough fuel on board to keep us in orbit for two weeks.”
“Which means we don’t have to worry about that problem yet. Right now, the only problem we have is figuring out who’s sabotaging the ship.”
I stood up. “Are you kidding? That might be your only problem, but it’s not mine. My coworkers want to lynch me. I haven’t had a proper night of sleep in two days. My ex-boyfriend has me under surveillance, my old boss wants me written up for a wardrobe infraction, and my new boss just poisoned me with carbon monoxide. If somebody doesn’t kill me because I know too much about the murder, I’m going to die in a space crash when Moon Unit 5 runs out of fuel. This trip was supposed to be my dream, and now all I want is to go home. I want to go back to work in the ice mines on Plunia. I want to go where I’m wanted. I want to be with my mom.”
Neptune’s expression changed. He switched the monitor back on and clicked a small green tab on the bottom that said Plunian News. A pop-up window filled the screen. Neptune pulled his chair away from the desk so I could get a better look at the article, but as soon as I made out the headline, I hated him for keeping it from me in the first place, and I hated him for showing it to me now.
Pirate Attack Destroys Dwarf Planet
Images of my home planet taken from a remote camera that monitored the galaxy filled the screen. Plunia exploding. Particles dispersing. My home planet dissolving into black nothingness.
The only world I knew was gone.
I looked away. Neptune put his hand under my jaw and turned my face back to the screen. I stared at the destruction of my planet, hating him for making me watch what I was bound to replay in future nightmares. I tried to turn my head, but Neptune’s hand kept my face pointed toward the news bulletins. It was only then that I noticed the bottom screen crawl.
Pirates Kill Ice Mine Owner
To the rest of the galaxy, the loss of critical dry ice supplies would take precedence over the smaller story running along the bottom of the screen. But to me, it was all that mattered. Because everything I’d wanted—my hopes, my dreams, my opportunities—had come to me because of my mother’s sacrifices. When our lives had been torn apart, she’d made a new future for us. And now she’d been killed at the hands of the very men who had corrupted my dad.