by Kal Spriggs
“Talk with her, find out what you can about her, and maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll slip up,” Ariadne said. “If it is her.” The blonde psychic bit her lip in thought.
“What will you do?” Anubus growled, “We all will be very occupied. And you could have easily engineered the entire event.”
“What?” Ariadne said. She looked completely surprised.
“Hey man, that’s pretty paranoid,” Rastar said. “She’s done nothing but help the entire time.”
“It is a possibility,” Anubus growled. “One I will not discount out of something as ephemeral as ‘friendship’ that you espouse.”
“Hey Annie, I think you can relax about her,” Rastar said. “I mean, if she were the psychic who messed with the others, don’t you think she’d have them vote for her? And Mike already voted for her before, so she wouldn’t need to even tamper with him.”
For once, Anubus ignored the nickname Rastar had given him, and his dark eyes glared at Ariadne, “Unless the election is not her goal, but maybe she intends to sow chaos, get us to distrust one another. Note how she has painted Crowe as the most likely traitor, and how he and she have hated one another from the first.”
“I don’t hate Crowe,” Ariadne said. “I don’t hate anyone. And for all that I don’t like him, he’s still a member of the team.” She looked at the other three. “I’m not going to set here and argue this with you. But I will tell you that I’m going to be wandering the ship with my psychic senses open to search for this other psychic. I’ll have Mandy and Miranda with me as back up, as well.”
“Right,” Pixel said. “That makes sense. You’re like our troubleshooter.”
“A quick reaction force, or mobile reserve,” Rastar said, “This makes sense.”
Anubus growled. But Pixel saw the big Wrethe give a single, grudging nod.
“Well, at least you have the easiest task,” Pixel said to Rastar, “It’s not like Krann will get out of that closet on her own.”
“She might,” Ariadne said. “She should be able to push her awareness out like me. If she has telekinesis as well as telepathy, she could then activate the door control from the outside at any time. For that matter, if she can mentally twist someone to vote for her as captain, she could command someone to open the door for her.”
“Oh,” Pixel said. Then he frowned, “Hey, then why didn’t you do any of that back when we first woke up on the cargo boat that dropped us at the station? Wouldn’t that have worked there?”
Anubus looked over at her, “Yes, that would have gotten us free right away, why did you not do that?”
Ariadne looked back and forth between them, “Uh… well,” She smiled weakly, “I just thought of it, actually, as I thought about how dangerous it would be to keep a psychic contained. I never thought to try it myself…”
“You’re kidding, right?” Anubus growled. “I take back what I said before, you’re too stupid to engineer that level of manipulation.”
“Well, I guess we can try that in the future then, at least,” Pixel said. He pulled out his datapad and made a note that he needed to set down with Ariadne and find out as much as he could about her capabilities. The fresh example of her rather chaotic approach made him think a more scientific approach might reveal some things she had not thought to try. As he did so, a note about Rastar popped up. “Oh, Rastar, while you’re up on the bridge with nothing else to do, would you mind translating some of the ship’s manuals for me? I can set down with you later and go over them.”
“We have a rogue psychic on the loose and you want him to translate manuals?” Anubus growled. “How have humans managed to be so successful when your priorities are so skewed.”
Pixel shrugged, “I call it ‘multitasking.’ You should try it sometime.”
“I do that,” Anubus said, “When I concentrate very hard on not killing everyone in the room and still find time to make small talk.”
Rastar gave a laugh and slapped Anubus on the back, “Oh, Annie, you have the best jokes sometimes.” Pixel saw Anubus’s claws flex out of their sheaths. He really hoped that Anubus continued to multitask.
“Rastar, you’ll hear me make a joke someday,” Anubus growled. “It might be the last thing you ever hear. Right after I rip—”
“Okay,” Ariadne said brightly, “I think we’re done here. Thank you everyone for meeting, and we’ll meet again tomorrow night, right before the vote, agreed?”
Anubus drew his lips back over his teeth, but he gave her a nod, and Rastar one last glare before he stalked out of the small compartment. Ariadne gave a relieved sigh, nodded at Pixel and Rastar and stepped out. Pixel pulled a datachip out of his pocket, “These are some copies I made earlier. Do you mind looking at them?”
“No problem, man,” Rastar said, and he gave Pixel two thumbs up with his upper limbs while he took the chips in his lower hands. “But I’m not real educated on some of the technical stuff, so there may be some issues.”
“Well, something’s better than nothing,” Pixel said. “And I’ve had a couple accidents over the past few days when I tried adjusting some things through trial and error.” He tapped a note on his datapad to check with Rastar in the morning to see what he had managed to translate.
“No worries, man,” Rastar said. “At least it’s not your fault about the sewage that sprayed the whole galley while Simon and Eric cleaned up after dinner last night. What a mess! I think they’ll kill whoever was behind that.” Rastar’s hide had gone green with humor, “But it was funny to see them afterward.”
“Yeah…” Pixel said. He suddenly remembered he had neglected to restore power to the waste water system in the galley. “Good thing that wasn’t me. I had absolutely nothing to do with that.” He cleared his throat, “They didn’t happen to mention if they had any suspects… did they?”
* * *
The small cargo hold lay on the lowest deck, close to the forward airlock. Pixel stepped inside and found a gypsy camp of sorts. Someone had hung up sheets, blankets, and curtains to divide the hold into separate rooms for privacy. Pixel looked around with confusion, right up until a man stuck his head out of one slit. “Looking for someone in particular?”
“Uh, yeah, Elena,” Pixel said.
“Oh,” the man stepped out and extended his hand, “I’m Micheal Santangel.”
“Hi, there,” Pixel said, and shook. The other man had long thin fingers, but a firm grip. “I remember you, you took charge of some of the other prisoners on the station, right? Mike had you get them to the ship.”
“Yes,” Santangel nodded. “I did that task. Though I wish we could have left the Nova Romans behind.” He had an unfamiliar accent, one that almost rolled the r’s and made his enunciation sound energetic.
“Uh, you’re another one who doesn’t like them, huh?” Pixel asked.
“He has more reason than most,” another man said from nearby. Pixel looked over to see a man in the rags of a military uniform step out of another draped area. “He’s a Saragossan, so he’s probably bitter about what we did to his planet. I’m Staff Sergeant Carmine Santander, by the way, one of those hated Nova Romans, and my family came from Saragossa, so I have a unique perspective, I think.”
Michael Santangel gave a dignified sigh, “Hello Sergeant.”
“Saragossa?” Pixel asked. “Isn’t that a Chxor occupied system? Why should they hate the Nova Romans?”
Santangel looked at the marine and raised one eyebrow, “Might I tell my story, or would you like to institute your propaganda first?”
“Go for it,” the sergeant seemed more resigned than anything else. “He’s got to be the only one who hasn’t heard the story on the ship. And I’d hate to rob you of the chance to make a good first impression.”
“My gratitude,” Santangel gave a graceful bow to the Nova Roman Marine. He looked over at Pixel, “It’s a simple story, really. Twenty years ago, Saragossa was an independent world, with six or seven minor systems tied in alliances and a po
werful military and merchant marine.”
“Sounds like it was a nice place,” Pixel said.
“I found it so, as a child,” Santangel said.
“You were a son of one of the Five Families,” the Nova Roma Marine said. “Those of us who had to leave due to limited social advancement might disagree.” He held up his hands at Santangel’s glare, “Sorry, I won’t interrupt again.”
“As I was saying, we had a powerful military. Strong enough, at the time, that we presented a tough target to the Chxor and we looked like a good ally against other nations, such as the Colonial Republic or Nova Roma.” Santangel shot a glance at the sergeant, “And I will admit we used that to our advantage, and played several sides against each other to strengthen our own position. But we saw the advance of the Chxor, so we sought an alliance with the largest organized body in human space.”
“The Nova Romans,” Pixel nodded. “What happened?”
“We received intelligence that the Chxor planned an attack on the Tibur system. We passed it along, certain that our allies would want every bit of support from us that we could muster.” Santangel pursed his lips. “Instead, they betrayed us, their allies, much as they betrayed their previous allies, the Ghornath.” Santangel said, and his face twisted in a grimace, “They launched a surprise attack against our fixed defenses, and then destroyed most of our space and ground infrastructure. They threw our entire planet into chaos, just weeks before the Chxor planned to launch their attack.”
Pixel looked over at the Nova Roman Marine, who gave a shrug.
“He won’t deny it,” Santangel said. “He can’t. Millions of my people starved to death, the food from the fields unable to reach them in the cities. The Chxor learned of our weakness and swept in. By that time… we welcomed them. They immediately began repairs to infrastructure, instituted ration dispersal… they saved almost two thirds of our population.” He gave a sigh, “And they killed another million or so of my people, the leaders who had survived the attacks and the chaos, doctors, teachers, the sick and wounded… just as they do on every world they captured. Yet my people still valued them, because they saved far more than they killed. Indeed, many of my people are loyal subjects to the Chxor.”
“Not you?” Pixel asked.
“I was, as the sergeant mentioned, a son of the Five Families… the wealthy and elite, the men who owned much of the businesses and served as the politicians and leaders for Saragossa,” Santangel gave a shrug. “I survived their purge of the Families due to some luck, but the fact remains that I have something of a blood debt that I will continue to bleed the Chxor over. I lost my older brother, my father, my two sisters…” He trailed off, and he smiled, “Then of course, there is the personal loss of my profession. I was in training to be a police inspector, the Nova Romans betrayal cut my school years short, and the Chxor occupation ended it for good.”
“Why did you do it?” Pixel asked of the sergeant.
“Well, I don’t speak for Nova Roma,” Sergeant Santander said. “But from a military standpoint… the Chxor went in an entirely different direction after that. Saragossa’s fall opened up a new front, caused them to threaten Colonial Republic worlds in addition to Nova Roma. It makes sense in that it bought us time… and it got us more allies than we could have gotten from Saragossa.”
“And it killed millions of my people, and sentenced the rest to Chxor occupation,” Santangel said.
“Yes,” the sergeant said. “And you know… it’s unfortunate. I regret that the decision was made, but I’m not the man who made it. You’d have to ask the strategy makers if it bought us enough time or not, and if they used that time as well as they should have.”
Pixel recognized what must be an argument that the two had repeated many times. The Saragossan’s voice rose, “You absolve yourself of responsibility—”
“Hey, I’m just here to find Elena Ludmilla Lakar, is she around?” Pixel interrupted.
“No,” both men said at once. Then they glared at one another.
“Great, I’ll just see myself out.” Pixel said.
“Wait, please,” Michael Santangel said. His voice sounded pained. Pixel wondered if it came from the requirement to ask or merely for the interruption to his favorite argument.
“What?” Pixel asked. On the one hand, he felt for the other man’s loss. On the other… the aristocrat represented a lot of what Pixel hated about his own world. The elite who had held all the power, and controlled the money and positions of authority.
“I had heard that some, such as the bounty hunter, have joined your ranks. I wish to put forward a request of my own,” Santangel said. “Short of a liberation of Saragossa, I have no home. I would like to join your crew. I have my skills as a policeman, but I am also knowledgeable about security systems. I could be a useful addition to the crew.”
“Alright…” Pixel nodded slowly, “I’ll pass that along.” He didn’t know why all these others seemed so eager to join up, especially with the whole election of a captain. But he wouldn’t turn down the help, even in the form of an exiled, penniless nobleman.
“My thanks,” the Saragossan gave him a bow. “I will be here if you have any news.”
“Right,” Pixel nodded. He felt suddenly awkward, but he was an engineer, he had not gone to school on how to deal with rich folks. “Well, nice to meet you both, and thanks for the history lesson.”
Pixel backed out of the hold and then glanced down at his datapad. If I were a possibly psychic bounty hunter with some mysterious goal, where would I go, he thought.
“Hello, Pixel, what brings you down here?” Simon asked.
“Oh, hi,” Pixel said, as he turned to find Simon had just come out of the stairwell, “Looking for Elena, actually, had a question for her.”
“What about?” Simon asked.
“Uh,” Pixel’s mind went blank. He had not really thought that far he realized. “Um, she mentioned she knew weapons pretty well, and since you all said I’m pretty hopeless, I wondered if she could give me some tips.”
Simon frowned, “Well, that’s fortunate.”
“Oh?” Pixel asked.
“Yes, she just volunteered to help me with the weapons safety class. Eric and I just gave her access to the Armory.”
“Oh?” Pixel asked. In conjunction with the suspicion that she was the rogue psychic, that might be a very bad thing indeed.
“Yeah, Crowe helped us to set up a security lockout of the Armory hatch, so only a couple people on the ship have access. Rastar, Eric, and now Elena and I.” Simon gave him a smile, “Just some security precautions Eric and I thought up.”
“Yeah… good idea,” Pixel wondered if Simon would notice if he buried his head in his hands and had a panic attack. Had Elena orchestrated that, and if so, did she plan to take over the ship with Eric and Simon as her mind-controlled pawns?
Or had Anubus’s paranoia just rubbed off on him?
“Yeah, it just came to us, Eric and I, and then Crowe showed up right after that…” Simon gave a broad smile. “And it’s so efficient!”
“Crowe was right there, huh?” Pixel smiled weakly, “Wow, what are the odds, right?” What were the odds that two of their suspects had their role in the whole thing. A sudden suspicion hit him.
“Yeah… by any chance did you talk with Krann at all before you thought this up?”
“No,” Simon said. “Though now that you mention it, I feel kind of silly for voting for her. I mean, she probably would make things more orderly around here, but, well, she is a Chxor, you know? I’m not sure if we could trust her.”
“Yeah, there is that,” Pixel said. Evidently the effects of the mental compulsion had faded at least somewhat. Pixel brought up his datapad and made a note to ask Ariadne about how long she thought the others might be affected. “Well, you said Elena is at the Armory, right?”
“With Eric,” Simon nodded, “They’re cleaning some of the Chxor weapons, for the class.”
“Right, probab
ly a good idea,” Pixel said. He felt like a broken record. A sudden thought hit him, “Oh, there’s a Saragossan, Michael Santangel, one of our passengers, he wants to join up. He was in training to be a police inspector, before the Chxor took over Saragossa, I guess. You might want to talk to him.”
“Sure,” Simon nodded, “Thanks for passing that on.”
Pixel took the stairs up and then made his way to the armory.
He found the reinforced hatch open, and Eric and Elena both seated at the bench. “Hey there,” Pixel said as he approached. He tried not to think of how jumpy Eric could be, or of what he might do if a rogue psychic pushed him just right.
“Oh, hey Pixel,” Eric said. He set down the pistol he’d just assembled. “Hey, do you mind hanging out with Elena here? I need to check on lunch, and I don’t want to leave just one person here alone.”
“Sure!” Pixel said brightly, I’d like nothing better than to be alone in a room filled with weapons with a possibly hostile rogue psychic. Then he remembered to concentrate on something other than his suspicions. He felt wrung out already. Pixel wiped his sweaty hands on his coveralls as Eric pushed past him and headed towards the galley. He realized that he should probably say something to Elena. “So, how’s it going?” Pixel asked.
“I am well,” Elena said, her accent sharp. “I find that your group treats me well. I am surprised, as in my profession, most men constantly test women or simply disregard them as inconsequential.”
“Oh?” Pixel asked. He felt sudden inspiration, “That must be rough, did you have any special talents that helped you to do well?”
“Persistence,” Elena said. “I do not give up, not when I see my goal. This surprised those who underestimated me.” She cocked her head, “You are from the Lithia system, da?”
Pixel frowned and concentrated hard on the power issues that he had tried to solve, so far without real success, “Uh, yeah, where did you hear that?”
“Professor Windbag from Loire,” Elena said. “He is one of those men who think they are smarter than everyone and must brag about it, no? Particularly to a pretty young woman.”
