Unbearable Failure

by ML Guida

  The Admiral’s eyes burned green, and she bet if he could, he’d shoot lasers at Vaughn. “He’s not if he’s lax on security when there is a possible threat from the Kamtrinians.”

  Sandra stretched out her arms between the warring father and son. “Stop, just stop. Pointing fingers isn’t going to help us.”

  “She’s right,” Tash said. “We need to find out what they were looking for.”

  The Admiral rolled his eyes. “Isn’t it obvious? Whoever did this was looking for the blood samples. We have either a saboteur or an intruder on board. We need to find out who and why, but without those samples, our chances are slim. For all we know, all of those women could be contaminated.”

  Ivona pulled out her telicator. “We’ll have to re-test them. That’s the only solution. Should I make the announcement?”

  Vaughn played his triumph card. “No. I used my flux rearranger and have them with me.” He opened up his palm.

  Three loud gasps were music to Sandra’s ears, but it was the Admiral’s super wide-eyes and his dropped jaw that made her bite back a laugh.

  “There was no reason to lock the lab.” Vaughn put the precious specimens on a lab table. “Because the samples were with me the entire time.”

  Tash clapped him on the shoulder. “You old fox. Clever, very clever.” He motioned with his arm toward the door. “Admiral, should we let them get to work or do you have something else you would like to say?”

  His response was a loud growl and the gnashing of his teeth. He straightened his shirt and then stormed out of the lab without another word.

  Ivona stared at the specimens. “I never would have thought that you would have had them, Vaughn.” Her voice said she admired Vaughn, but something in her eyes sent chills rolling down Sandra’s back.

  Sandra shook her head. It must be the glint of the light or being over tired. She’d just met Ivona and had no reason to believe that she had destroyed the lab. She seemed to be a dedicated nurse.

  She frowned. “Where are Marc and Greum?”

  Ivona tilted her head. “They’re in the back doing an inventory to see if anything else is missing.”

  Vaughn followed her gaze. “Is there?”

  “They haven’t reported anything,” Ivona said. “But they just started.”

  Tash’s smile faded and he looked around the room. “The Admiral is right about one thing. We do have an intruder or a saboteur on board the Intrepid. I’m going to have security to do a search for an intruder.”

  Sandra picked up a notebook on the floor. She recognized the long strokes as Vaughn’s. “Isn’t this yours?”

  “Yes, thank you.” He immediately started thumbing through the notebook.

  Uneasiness grew in the pit of her stomach that made her break out in goosebumps. She rubbed her arms. “What if there isn’t an intruder?”

  Tash and Vaughn glanced nervously at each other.

  Vaughn looked up from his notebook. “That’s even worse. That means an Arian is sabotaging us.”

  Tash gritted his teeth. “Just like Nulc.”

  Vaughn returned to his notebook and held it up. “There are pages missing from my notebook.”

  Resentment bottled up in Sandra’s throat. Too many times, she’d discover pages missing in her notes, only later to find them on Oscar’s desk or in a report that he’d written claiming it was his work. “What do you mean?”

  Tash frowned. “Are you sure?”

  “Unfortunately, yes.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I’m not sure how this got in here. I must have grabbed it by mistake.”

  “I don’t understand,” Sandra said.

  Tash’s eyes darkened. “Those notes were about Dad, weren’t they?”

  The hair on the back of Sandra’s hair stood up as an electric current of tension broke out between the two brothers. Tingles made her fingertips turn numb, her legs tremble, and she thought she was right in the smack of a bear fight between two dominating grizzlies.

  “Tash, this wasn’t supposed to be here.” Vaughn’s pleading voice had little effect at the anger flaring in his brother.

  Sandra edged away from Tash, afraid any minute he’d shift into a bear and then swipe her with his paw. She clasped Vaughn’s bicep with her shaking hand. “What was specifically in the notes?”

  He glanced at Ivona who was staring at them curiously. He lowered his voice. “I had found some discrepancies in the Admiral’s report––”

  Tash crossed his arms over his chest. “You mean Dad’s report.”

  “I didn’t think it was a big thing, Tash,”––Vaughn’s voice fired out excuses––“it was just little things like the weather, the time of year, the vegetation on the planet. I just thought he was confused or too upset to notice those details.”

  “Or maybe those details were bigger than you thought,” Sandra murmured. She avoided looking at Tash and kept her gaze on Vaughn.

  Turmoil flashed in his eyes as if he didn’t want to believe what that meant. But he was a scientist, he wouldn’t be able to disregard the facts. “Yeah, maybe.”

  “Stop. Just stop.” Tash growled. “I told you to drop this stupid inquisition, but no, you wouldn’t listen.” He shoved Vaughn’s shoulder. “Now, someone has your notes. Has it ever occurred to you that Dad found those notes and ripped them out?”

  “Because he was guilty,” Sandra blurted the words out before she could think.

  “No.” Tash growled, his eyes darkened, and he grew in size, his muscles thickened, and his hair broke out all over him.

  Terror shot a bolt of adrenaline through Sandra faster than a jolt of electricity.

  Crap, she was dead, dead, dead.

  Vaughn immediately stepped in front of Sandra. “Leave her alone, Tash. I mean it.” His voice was a challenge and muscles rippled underneath his shirt.

  “If Dad has those notes, idiot, he may be bringing charges up against you. Have you thought about that? Tarnishing a hero’s reputation could land you in front of a court-martial. I’m telling you for the last time.” He jabbed his finger into Vaughn’s chest. “Stop this investigation now.” He threw up his hand. “Clean this mess up and start testing those vials. Do your job. You’re not a security bear.”

  He stormed out of the room.

  No one spoke. No one moved. No one breathed.

  “Hey, what’s going on in here?” A curious male voice broke the silence.

  Sandra’s bones jumped right out of her skin, and her heart bounced off the ceiling like a ping pong ball.

  “Nothing,” Vaughn muttered. “What did you find out?”

  “Whoever was in here didn’t take any drugs or any anything else from the lab. However, Marc found that some of his notes were tampered with.”

  Vaughn’s face was pinched with anxiety. “What?”

  “Yes, he was doing experiments on a cure for the disease spreading on Aria. It was everything that he’d tried that didn’t work.”

  Sandra tapped the rim of her glasses. “Maybe. Or maybe not.”

  “I don’t follow you,” Greum said slowly.

  “Marc may have overlooked something significant that the intruder or saboteur didn’t want written down. Can he re do those experiments?”

  “Yes, I can.” Marc came up behind Greum. “But I won’t be able to help you retest the women crewmen.”

  “You don’t have to.” Sandra smiled, stared up at Vaughn, and caressed his arm. “Thanks to Vaughn, we have the specimens. All we have to do is test them.”

  She couldn’t hide the admiration she had for this bear. He was peeling back the onion, layer-by-layer, that she had carefully planted around herself, refusing to let any man ever hurt her again.

  Greum grinned and clapped his hands together. “For once, things don’t look so bad.”

  Vaughn picked up a broom that was up against the wall. “Closet open.” A door slid open to a closet full of cleaning supplies. Sandra held her breath, waiting for the brooms to start sweeping by themselves.
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br />   Vaughn grabbed a broom. “First, we need to get this place into shape.”

  She exhaled. No such luck. “I’ll sweep.”

  Vaughn smiled. “Here.”

  In less than two hours, the lab was semi-back to normal, minus some beakers and test-tubes. Broken glass was gone. Notebooks were back where they belonged. Tables were wiped down and the stains on the floor were mopped up.

  Sandra whipped her brow as she sat at her station and cast her gaze over Vaughn. “You’re a hard worker.”

  He shrugged. “The lab needed to be clean. We couldn’t conduct any tests with authenticity if the lab wasn’t scrubbed clean.”

  “True.”

  He frowned. “Don’t humans have the same standards?”

  “Of course. But if the university lab were messed up, Oscar would order me or the other women scientists to clean while he sat back drinking a damn cup of coffee.”

  Ivona prepared her microscope. “Not all Arians are like Vaughn.”

  Sandra cocked an eyebrow. “You mean the Admiral wouldn’t help clean?” She was expecting Ivona to laugh or grin or smirk, but she got a cold stare that turned her insides brittle.

  Sandra’s smile faded, and she glanced nervously at Vaughn. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult the Admiral.”

  “Don’t feel bad on my account,” Ivona mumbled.

  Sandra frowned, not sure what she meant. Did she admire the Admiral or not?

  Vaughn shrugged his shoulders. “We need to get to work.” His hair hid his face, so Sandra couldn’t see what he was feeling, but she could hear it in his voice. He hadn’t appreciated her comment.

  Sandra’s face heated up and she cleared her throat. She quickly got down to business and grabbed a slide with her shaking hand. The Admiral was definitely a touchy subject. Definitely no more jests about him or she’d liable find herself in the brig or someplace worse.

  The first test tube she picked up was Contrella’s. Contrella had been the first woman she’d drawn blood from. She carefully dabbed some of Contrella’s blood on the slide then put it under the microscope.

  Sandra’s stomach tightened then swooshed and sloshed, sending bile up her throat and leaving a bitter taste in her mouth.

  Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap

  She remembered Contella’s worried look, the tenseness in her smile, and the fear in her big green eyes.

  Sandra hung her head. Ugly black spiderettes had sprouted through Contrella’s blood like weeds.

  She looked over at him. “Vaughn.” Her lifeless voice was devoid of any emotion, but her insides jumbled into a mess that her worst fear had come true.

  He put his slide away and glanced over at her. He held another slide in midair and sucked in his breath. The color of his face drained from white to pale to ashen. “Someone’s infected?” Astonishment and denial banged into those two words.

  He slowly put the slide down. “Are you sure?”

  Ivona piped in. “Sandra, you must have made a mistake. It can’t be true.” Her sharp tone reminded Sandra of her mother, always ready to point out every single mistake until Sandra wanted to melt into the shadows and disappear.

  The thrum of Sandra’s pulse echoed in her ears, and her beating heart sent her blood steaming to her face. She scooted her seat away from the table. “I’m sure.” She motioned with the flick of her hand and the hard slap of her voice.

  “I didn’t mean to insult you,” Ivona said softly. “I just can’t believe any of the women on board the Intrepid are infected. None of them went to shore.”

  Her mother had said that she hadn’t meant to insult her one too many times––only to lead Sandra into a trap and then shred her to pieces. Sandra crossed her arms over her chest. “See for yourself.”

  “Easy tigress.” Vaughn came up behind her and gently rubbed the back of her neck. “No one’s judging you here.”

  His gentle massage reduced the anger bunching up her muscles into tight knots.

  “Sorry,” she mumbled. “Just can’t shake the past of my mother coming back to haunt me.”

  He smiled and edged around her. “Let me have a look.” He peered through the microscope. “Shades!”

  Ivona joined them her face pale. “Vaughn, is it true?”

  “I’m afraid so.” He lifted his head. “Look for yourself.” He pulled out his telicator.

  Sandra frowned. “What are you doing?”

  “I have to contact Tash and the Admiral. The women are all in serious danger. We have to figure out how they were poisoned. Before it’s too late.”

  Sandra rubbed her arms that had broken out with a zillion goosebumps. She couldn’t shake the thought rolling over and over in her mind. What if they were already too late?

  Chapter 7

  Vaughn rubbed his dry eyes, tired of looking through the damn microscope to discover another woman infected with the dreaded disease. Black tentacles had decimated her healthy cells––almost if they were consuming the Bregalite.

  His throat closed up and pain throbbed between his temples as if trying to beat the answer out of him. But he was at a loss. Soon the poor woman wouldn’t be able to absorb water, and like the Czarina, she’d turn into a dusty skeleton.

  He leaned back in his chair and clenched his fists.

  Sandra looked at him with bleary eyes. She took off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Another woman proved positive?” Her voice sounded as tired of his.

  “Yes.” He pounded his fist on the counter. “We’ve been at this for the past six hours, and we’re no closer to finding out how they’re getting sick. We must be looking over something.”

  Sandra spun around in her chair. “What we need to do to is start eliminating where they’re not getting it. I suggest we start with your food processors. If that proves negative, we move to the drinking system and then life supports.”

  Ivona stretched at her station. “The problem with that is all of those things would have impacted the men as well. It’s not like we separate our food, water, and air from men.”

  “I’ve thought about that,” Sandra said. “What if the strain has changed from the original strain that the women had on Aria?”

  Vaughn frowned. “You mean a mutated strain?”

  “Yes. Before we start working on the cure, we need to know if it’s the right strain.”

  Ivona put her hand on her forehead. “That would mean even more testing.”

  “I know,” Sandra said. “We come up with a hypothesis, test, get results, and do it over and over again.”

  “Shades,” Vaughn grumbled. “We could be looking at two different cures––one for the Intrepid and one for Aria.”

  Sandra’s face turned grim. “Unfortunately, yes. I’d like to look at the original strain from Aria while you two finish the rest of the blood samples.”

  “Sure.” Vaughn opened the cooling system that held the specimens and instead of cold air, hot air smacked him in the face and he flinched. The stench of burnt flesh made his stomach recoil. He put his head on his shoulder and coughed. “I don’t believe this!”

  “What?” Sandra and Ivona both said at once and rushed to his side.

  “Oh, my God. What’s that horrible smell?” Sandra covered her mouth with her hand. “How did this happen?”

  Ivona turned her head. “Fried blood. It’s disgusting.”

  “Someone turned up the damn heat.” Vaughn’s voice shook with fury. He whipped out his telicator. “Tash.”

  “Tash, here.”

  Vaughn hated making this call, but he had little choice. “You and the Admiral need to come to the medical lab. Now.”

  “We’re on our way. Tash, out.”

  Sandra put her hand in his and squeezed it gently. “This isn’t your fault.”

  Reassurance rolled over Vaughn. Her faith in him made him want her even more.

  A dull ache formed in the back of his dry throat, leaving a foul taste in his mouth. “Try telling that to my brother and my dad.”

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sp; Ivona shook her head. “I don’t know how this could have happened. We were all here the entire time.”

  Sandra studied the cooler. “Maybe somebody did something to the cooling system when he or she wrecked the lab.”

  Vaughn released her hand and pushed his frustration behind him. Anger and pouting wasn’t going to get him anywhere. Holding his breath, he looked closer inside the stained cooler. Some test tubes had turned black and some had spurted blood onto the walls and ceilings.

  Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

  He was about to close the door when something shiny caught his eye. He forgot about the stench and peered closer. “Sandra, you’re right. It looks like there’s a copper wire that has been painted.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Sandra, could you get me a pair of rubber gloves?”

  “Sure.”

  He slowly followed the wire and it went down to two scorched prongs.

  “Here, Vaughn.”

  The doors to the lab slid open. The Admiral cut in front of Tash who shook his head.

  “What’s wrong now, Vaughn?” His barking voice made Vaughn’s nerves screech.

  Vaughn took a deep breath. “We’ve discovered more sabotage.”

  Tash frowned. “Security has investigated every inch of the Intrepid and there is no sign of an intruder.”

  “I know,” Vaughn muttered. He put on the gloves. “Look at this wire.”

  “What wire?” The Admiral crowded closer, nearly knocking him over. From behind him, Sandra rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

  “Follow my finger.” He moved his finger alongside the wire and ended it at the blackened prongs.

  Tash rubbed his chin. “You’re saying someone wired this?”

  Vaughn stood. “Yes. I suspect someone wired this, and then from a remote-control device increased the heat in the cooler.”

  “But wouldn’t we have heard something go off?” Ivona asked.

  Vaughn shook his head. “Not necessarily. The saboteur could have increased the heat gradually with the remote-control device.” He met his brother’s worried eyes. “Unfortunately, it could be anyone.”