by Joseph Rhea
Jake thought about this for several seconds, weighing the consequences of delaying their dumping of the reactor versus the potential of making a discovery of such a magnitude. Like his fear of Jane, a part of him hoped that they were wrong about the box inside the salvager. If it did prove to be a way to cross the border without setting off the perimeter defenses, then the ramifications were almost too much to comprehend. A Counsel responsible for murdering hundreds of its own citizens? He looked at Raines and remembered the conversation they had when they first met, where the engineer had called Civica a “prison for humanity.” Wasn’t this proof of that?
“Okay,” he suddenly blurted out. “I’m in.”
“Captain?” AJ said.
“I mean, I’m authorizing you all to do whatever it takes to test Jane’s theory out.” He looked at Ash. “Plot us a course to the southern border. Make it as direct as possible, but still avoid any cities or outposts. We have a potentially dangerous reactor in our hold, and if we end up having to dump it prematurely, I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”
They all stood there staring at him. Apparently, they weren’t used to him acting like a “real” captain. He smiled at the thought and then said with a more serious face, “Let’s go, people.”
Chapter 12
Since their original westward course to the Rift was an arc that took them far south of the shipping lanes surrounding Capitol City, it only took a couple of days to reach the colony’s southern border. During this period, Jake and his crew tried to pretend everything was normal, especially when Dr. Wood was up and about. Since he wasn’t allowed on the bridge, he had no way of knowing that they had changed course.
To keep Wood occupied, Jake agreed to let him use the ship’s recreation room to build a working copy of his laboratory in Capitol City. Normally on long hauls, the ship’s rec room would be in heavy use by the crew during off-hours, but no one complained about the decision. Their minds were elsewhere, Jake assumed, much like his own. On the afternoon of the second day, when they were less than an hour away from the border, he decided it was time to fill the doctor in on their plan.
“Anyone home?” Jake called out when he stepped out of the rec room lockout and entered what appeared to be a huge version of the science classroom from his old school. Even though he knew the Wave’s rec room had a floor space of less than thirty square meters, the utility fog had an uncanny way of simulating much larger areas.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” the doctor called out. Jake turned and saw him step out from behind a large cylinder on the far side of the lab and begin to walk toward him. There was an ever-so-slight wobble to his body as he approached, obviously caused by the utility fog simulating his image. In reality, Dr. Wood was somewhere within a few meters of him, moving towards a recreation of Jake. Only when Wood came within arm’s reach would the simulation be replaced by the real person.
“Thanks for coming,” Wood said as he reached out his hand.
Jake furrowed his brow as he shook the man’s hand. “I didn’t know you had asked for me,” he admitted.
“Oh!” Wood exclaimed as he jumped back oddly. “Then why are you bothering me? Can’t you see I’m busy?”
Jake looked around at the tables nearby. Each was covered by old-fashioned beakers and test tubes. A small flame on one table was heating up something blue and making it boil. “What exactly are you doing in here, Doctor?”
Wood looked around him and turned back to Jake. “Isn’t it obvious?”
Jake shook his head. “No, it isn’t obvious at all.”
Wood replied slowly and carefully, as though he were speaking to a child. “I’m building a bomb.”
Jake swallowed hard. “Did you say a bomb?”
“Yes,” Wood replied, his eyes suddenly looking deranged.
Jake reminded himself that while a person could easily create some sort of weapon such as a pneumatic gun inside a recreation facility, they could never build an explosive device. The microscopic little robots that, when linked together, built everything a person could imagine, were all made out of simple metallic parts. There were no other elements or chemicals inside, and even if there were, the system had too many safeguards to allow that. Still, he had to ask. “Why are you building a bomb, doctor?”
“Because I’m a mad scientist, and that’s what we do,” Wood replied. Then he suddenly burst out laughing. When he regained his composure, he said, “I’m sorry, Captain. Just a little lab joke.”
“I don’t get it,” Jake admitted.
“And I don’t get why you have altered course without telling me,” Wood said, all humor gone from his voice.
“I actually came down here to tell you that,” he said.
“Very well,” Wood said. He spoke a few words in a language Jake didn’t understand, and the entire lab disintegrated before his eyes. It was quickly replaced by a small room, nearly the same size and shape as the real rec room, which contained two old chairs facing an open fireplace in the back.
“I’ve seen this before,” Jake said. He walked up and placed his hands near the fire. He knew that at that moment, invisible little robots were swarming all over his hands, rubbing them and creating heat from the friction. It gave the illusion that the fire was real.
“Yes,” Wood said as he walked over and sat down in one of the large chairs. A layer of what appeared to be dust jumped up from the material when he sat down. “It’s from your ship’s rec room primer. A simple little simulation, but I find the simplicity of it quite relaxing.” He motioned to the other chair. “Tell me, Captain, have you determined from where my sphere originated? Are we in fact, heading towards that location as we speak?”
Jake noticed how the doctor referred to the sphere as “his” as he sat down. The chair was far more comfortable than any real chair inside the ship. “If people can invent digital chairs this comfortable,” he said as he leaned back, “then why can’t they do it in real life?”
“They can, Captain Stone,” Wood said. “Only they don’t tend to place them in rundown cargo haulers like this.”
Jake tried to ignore that slam against his ship as he told the doctor about the salvager in their hold and their plans to test its ability to cross the border undamaged. He didn’t mention the device they found inside, or that they removed it. Wood didn’t take the news very well.
“You seem to be an intelligent man, Captain Stone,” he started politely. “So can you please explain to me why you have wasted the past two days chasing a false belief that ships can cross our borders?”
“Raines seems to think it might be true,” Jake countered.
“Norman Raines is a fool,” he spat. “And you are all fools for believing him.” He stood up and walked to the other side of the room. “And I am a fool for believing you could help me.”
Jake stood as well. “I think finding out if the border is passable and learning whether or not we’ve been lied to our entire lives is a little more important than locating some sphere.”
“It’s not your decision,” Wood yelled at the wall.
Jake took a step toward him and yelled back, “It is my decision, actually. I’m in charge on this boat, whether you like it or not.”
Wood spun around so fast Jake thought he was going to punch him. Instead, he pointed a bony finger at his nose and said, “Mark my words, Captain. You will regret this decision.”
Jake swatted his hand down and felt anger building in him. “Don’t threaten me, Doctor.”
Wood retracted his hand and rubbed it, looking subdued. “Believe me, Captain. I have no need to threaten you. Your own actions will be your downfall.” With that, he turned and exited through the doorway, leaving Jake alone in the room. Even with the fire nearby, he felt a chill run up his back.
When he finally exited the rec room lockout, he paused near the door to his old quarters, the one he used to sleep in when the Rogue Wave was docked in Capitol City. It was only a few months ago, but in some ways it seemed like years.
Wood’s quarters were the next door down the short hall. He stopped there, considered knocking, but then heard the background hum of the thrusters decrease in pitch, signaling that they were slowing down. He turned and headed to the bridge.
When he reached the top of the final set of stairs, AJ was standing in the command position at the bow, talking to Ash and Vee behind her. “Don’t get us too close, guys,” she said. “If and when the border defenses take out the salvager, I don’t want us anywhere nearby.”
“I have piloted a ship before, you know,” Vee said, with more humor in her reply than irritation.
“Yeah,” Ash said in a little kid’s voice. “You’re not my mom.” As usual, he took everything a step too far.
AJ glanced behind her. “This is serious, Ash. No one has ever tried something like this before. We are just outside the red zone, and we might even be attacked for venturing this close.”
Ash put on a serious face as he nodded his head, but when AJ turned back to the big window, he looked at Vee and wiggled his eyebrows.
“Saw that, Ash,” AJ said without turning around. “Guess who gets the twelve-to-four shift for the remainder of the trip?”
“Sir, yes, sir,” Ash said mockingly, but Jake knew he hated working nights. Not that night was any different from daytime aboard a ship. For that matter, neither was living in the lower level of a city. Only the topside dwellers, which tended to be people in government and their families, had the chance to watch the sunlight move across the sky during the day and got to see the stars turn on every evening.
“Is Raines ready?” AJ asked him as he walked up to stand between Ash and Vee.
“I have no idea,” he admitted. “I just came from the rec room.”
“How’d he take the news?” Ash asked.
Jake shrugged. “As I think we all expected.”
“Threatened to kill us all for disobeying him?” Vee asked.
“Close,” he replied. He reached down and pressed the communication panel on Vee’s console. “Raines, are you ready?”
The engineer’s face appeared in a small window on the center of Vee’s dashboard. She touched it and dragged it to the side next to Jake. “I’m ready,” he said. “The salvager is put back together and the drop bay is sealed and pressurized. Just waiting for Jessie. She should be up there by now.”
“I’m here,” Jessie said from behind Jake as she slid into her acoustics chair. She put her earphones on and pulled her knees up against her chest—a habit she picked up from Jane. She was also barefoot, a habit she had given Jane in return. In his mind, Jake gave her one of Coal’s lectures about the dangers of non-standard footwear aboard a working vessel, but in reality, he didn’t mind. Stacy liked to work barefoot as well, and she never lost a toe. When he realized the stupidity of that last thought, he cursed himself.
“Ready to transmit, Captain,” Jessie called out.
Jake looked back down at Raines’s face. “Let it go,” he said. “Let’s see what happens.”
A light on AJ’s forward command console lit up, signaling that the lower door was now open. Everyone stood up and began searching the darkness outside the bridge’s many viewports. In less than a minute Vee shouted, “There it is!”
“Do your thing, Jessie,” AJ said.
Jessie slid her hands over her console in a complicated pattern he couldn’t match if he tried. Then she glanced up and dropped her earphones to her neck. “Done,” she said.
Jake looked back out the window in time to see the salvager turn and race towards the invisible border directly ahead of them. As they stood there with their eyes glued to the darkness, Raines came up to stand beside Jake.
“How long do you think?” the engineer asked.
“Ash?”
The navigator glanced down at his console. “It’s right there,” he said. “Should be crossing—”
A flash lit up the bridge, nearly blinding everyone.
“Get ready for the shockwave,” Jessie yelled as she grabbed hold of her dashboard.
Jake held onto her chair just as the bow rose slightly, and then the bridge shook so violently it sounded as if it were going to rip itself apart.
Jessie leaned in close to his ear and said, “Don’t worry, Captain. It’s loudest on the bridge because the hull is exposed to the water here. Sound passes right through.” Apparently, his face had given him away.
He was relieved when it passed, even though the floor continued to vibrate under his feet for another couple of seconds.
“Well, that was fun,” Ash said.
“Any damage,” Jake asked.
Raines was already back at his engineering console. “Just a lot of sensors trying to deal with something they had never experienced before,” he said. “They’re a little upset, but I think I can calm them down.”
“He means that he’s going to recalibrate them,” Jane said from the stairwell. Jake had been so busy that he had forgotten to even wonder where she was. A captain should always know where his crew is, Coal used to say, but he wasn’t sure if that was even possible.
“What’s going on?” Wood yelled as he ascended the stairs behind her.
“You’re not allowed on the bridge, Doctor,” AJ said, moving towards him as if she were going to push him back down the stairwell.
“It’s okay, AJ,” Jake said, extending his arm to stop her.
“No, it’s not okay,” she said as she ducked below his arm and grabbed hold of Wood.
“Take your hands off me, young woman,” he bellowed. “You have no idea—” AJ didn’t even reply; she just marched him down the stairs.
Jake looked at Raines. “I guess we’d better get down there before she does something rash,” he said.
“Agreed,” the engineer said as he headed aft.
“Rash?” Vee giggled. “You mean more rash than shoving a Councilmember’s son down a flight of stairs?”
“Shh, it’s not funny,” Ash whispered.
“Yes, it most certainly is funny,” Vee said.
Jake reached the bottom of the stairs just as Raines stepped between AJ and Dr. Wood. “Let me pour you a coffee, Doctor,” he said.
“Captain, I want that woman arrested,” Wood fumed.
“You don’t give orders on this ship,” AJ fired back.
“Everyone just calm down,” Jake said, standing between the two. He then looked directly at AJ and added, “And that’s an order.”
Wood was the first to sit. AJ waited a moment, probably for effect, and then sat on the opposite side of the table.
“Can you tell me why you sent that salvager across the border?” Wood asked Jake, ignoring AJ altogether. “What possible reason can you have for intentionally destroying a one-of-a-kind piece of machinery like that?”
Jake glanced at AJ before responding. “We wanted to test…something.”
“You wanted to determine whether or not the transmitter you found inside the salvager worked,” Wood said.
“How do you know about that?” AJ asked as she rose to her feet.
“Because I think he’s the one who put it there,” Raines said from the stairs.
Jake looked at Raines, and then back at Wood. “Is he right?”
Wood narrowed his eyes. “I certainly didn’t do the dirty work of placing the device inside, but yes, I was involved in its creation.” He looked past Jake at Raines. “How did you know?”
Raines smiled. “I didn’t, actually.” He started towards the coffee pot in the galley but then stopped and added, “I believe it’s called a ‘bluff,’ and I have to admit that I’m surprised that you fell for it.”
“I have nothing to hide,” he said. “Nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Nothing?” AJ yelled, lunging towards him. Before Jake could react, she grabbed his arms and physically lifted him out of the chair. “You were a part of this deception, part of the lie that allowed so many of my people to die, and you say you have nothing to be ashamed of?”
Wood kept an impassive
face as he said, “I stand by my statement.”
AJ dropped him back down to his chair, pulled out her gun, and shoved it in his cheek. “And I stand by mine,” she hissed as she cocked the gun’s hammer back.
Jake took a step back. “Don’t do it, AJ!”
She tightened her grip on the handle. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t.”
Jake tried to come up with something but couldn’t. Wood’s crime was beyond anything he could imagine, and he probably deserved to die for it. Nevertheless, did they have the right to execute the man? He glanced at the wall behind Wood. It had a recessed shelf that held the crew’s coffee cups. “The bullet might ricochet off his skull and break my favorite mug,” he said.
AJ glanced back at him and rolled her eyes. “Was that supposed to be funny? You’re trying to diffuse a tense situation with bad jokes?”
Jake smiled. “Yeah, well, I couldn’t think of any good jokes, so I had to improvise.”
She released the hammer and slid the gun back into her pants. “Don’t give up your day job, Jake.” She then turned and walked past Raines to the galley.
“Thank you, Captain,” Wood said as he tried to straighten his shirt.
Jake sat down in the chair right next to him. “Don’t thank me,” he said. “Just tell me why the Council has been lying to its people for so long. Why the sludge aren’t we allowed to cross our own border?”
Wood sat back and sighed. “You expect me to just sit here and tell you the biggest secret there is?”
“I do,” Jake replied. “Otherwise, I’ll walk out of here and let my first mate ask you.”
Wood tried to smile but failed. “Haven’t you heard, Captain? Dead men tell no tales.”
Jake kept a straight face when he leaned forward and whispered, “There are many places she could shoot you that wouldn’t kill you right away.” He glanced down at Wood’s abdomen and added, “I guarantee you will beg her to kill you before it’s over.”
Wood swallowed hard but tried to hide his obvious fear. “Very well, Captain. I don’t suppose I can be blamed for talking under threat of torture.”
