My heart leapt again, this time with hope. “Where are you?” I yelled, hoping I wasn’t imagining the reply.
I listened to the silence for a moment, then heard, “Is someone there?”
The sound seemed to be coming from somewhere on my left, so I shifted painfully and laid my ear against that wall. “This is Andi Lloyd,” I called, enunciating carefully. “Who is this?”
Silence for a moment, then, “Lee Trent.”
A gasp burned down to my chest. Lee Trent? He was alive? But how—hadn’t he gone out the airlock?
Pearson must have faked his death. Why, I wasn’t sure. To give the Captain more reason to mistrust him? To distract us from his next step? Or did he have other reasons to want to be rid of the chaplain?
“Are you all right?” I yelled.
Again, that moment of silence. Then faintly, “I think my arm is broken. Did he hurt you?”
I could just barely make out the words. “No, I’m fine. We have to warn the Captain.”
“Yes.”
Nothing more. I wondered if his arm really was broken, and how bad the fracture was. I’d seen him hanging on to the access doorframe when the shuttle had pulled away; the suction yanking him out must have injured him.
Airlock access. The third function Unkrich had clearance for. Pearson must have pulled the shuttle away on purpose, then caught Lee as he was pulled out into space. How he’d managed to remoor and get back aboard with his prisoner, I had no clue.
“Any ideas?” I asked.
This time the silence was longer. I shifted again as I waited, wincing as I repositioned my sore neck.
“No,” he said at last. “I’ve been feeling around since I’ve been here.”
My heart sank. If we didn’t get out soon, it would be too late.
I shifted again, trying to get comfortable. Using my arms to brace myself against the sides of the crate, I put my legs out in front of me and winced as I sat down on something hard.
I rose slightly and reached where my leg had been. There was nothing there. I sat down, thinking I’d been imagining it.
I grunted as I sat on it again, and realized it was in my skirt pocket.
My pager.
Gripping it, I felt hope flow into me again. It couldn’t tell the Doctor where I was, but it would alert him. And maybe—maybe someone on the ship could find a way to triangulate the source signal and find me.
My finger trembling, I pressed the button and held it down. “Lord, please let the Doctor hear it,” I murmured. If he didn’t have his pager with him, or if it was run down—
He just had to hear it. I kept my finger on the button, and pressed myself closer to the left wall. “Lee?” I called. “I found my pager. I’m paging the Doctor now.”
“Okay,” came the reply, fainter than any yet.
I knew it wouldn’t do any good, but I pushed the button harder.
I kept my finger pressed to the button for I don’t know how long. I had no sense of time, and in time I forgot I was pushing and could hardly feel the pager in my hand anymore. The monotony made my head feel fuzzy, and I felt my eyelids drooping.
Then I thought I heard a sound.
I moved, feeling myself fly awake, and I pressed my ear to the front of the crate, ignoring the protestations of my sore muscles.
A voice. Multiple voices, faint, but there.
Heart pumping wildly, I pounded the pager and my other fist on the metal wall. “Help!” I screamed. “This way!”
Something banged on the lid of the crate, and my heart rose. It snapped, creaked, and then opened.
The next thing I heard was a pleasant-toned, “You should have thought to take her pager, Julian.”
I stared up at Napleon’s face, eerily yellow in the electric lantern light above me.
Chapter XXIII
I blinked in the sudden light. “Napoleon…?” I croaked, my throat dry from the hours of waiting.
He sighed, not seeming to hear the nickname I‘d finally let slip. “I’m sorry about this, my dear, I truly am. You see of course why we had to put you here?”
My throat went drier, making each breath rasp as I inhaled it. Suddenly a tiny piece clicked into place. He had gotten cut on purpose to get me to take him to sickbay; just as the Doctor had thought. He’d needed to find out how to get to the scopolamine, so he could get the code from Unkrich.
The Doctor had been right.
“We didn’t want to hurt you, Miss Lloyd, but you understand why, don’t you? It’s like I told you, a lot of people could die if we don’t succeed in this. It’s not the people you thought I was talking about, but it’s true.”
My only instinct was that he must not know that I knew about Lee. I stared up into his little black eyes, and said nothing.
With another patient sigh, he handed the electric lantern to someone reached down into the crate. “Can I help you out, Miss Lloyd?”
I would have shrunk back if there were any more room to shrink into. “I… I don’t know…”
Not waiting for an answer, he slipped his hands under my arms, and pulled me up, gently enough, but firmly. Once I was standing, he gripped my hand with his cold, soft one to help me jump out. I saw then that Doctor Pearson stood beside Napoleon, large eyes eerily illuminated by the lantern.
“I am sorry you have such a low opinion of our intelligence, my dear,” said Napoleon pleasantly, shifting his grip from my hand to my elbow. “I would have thought that you would have realized that we would notice a search set off by your pager signal.”
I looked down at my boots, just visible in the circle of light.
“Oh…” he said slowly, after a moment of silence. “You don’t mean that you didn’t realize I was a part of it?”
I studied my boots more carefully, not wanting to meet his eyes.
“Doctor Pearson,” the little Captain said pleasantly, tightening his grip on my elbow, “why don’t you go prepare to harvest the element?”
Doctor Pearson said not a word, but turned and left, taking the light with him. I watched as it traveled along the dark room to the lift, then faded away as the man traveled down with it.
Then it was dark.
“I like darkness, don’t you, my dear?” came the cheerful, pleasant voice.
“Napoleon…” I begged, too distraught to catch my mistake in time.
I could sense his puzzlement in the dark. “Napoleon.” He mused the word, rather than making it a question.
“I… it was too confusing to have two captains on board,” I stammered, feeling the hot, numb betrayal flood me from the head down. I didn’t know how to explain. The habit had just grown from a first impression, and I only now realized just how accurate it had been.
The Doctor had always said I was an intuitive judge of character.
“I’m very flattered, my dear. You couldn’t have known that I have admired the man since I was a small boy. I’m very pleased that you would see him in me.”
I shuddered as chills usurped the warmth, and he must have felt it, but he said nothing about it.
“I think we should have a little talk, my dear. Would you like to have a seat?”
I shook my head in the dark, then said, “No,” not liking how my voice trembled.
“Very well. I am quite accustomed to standing.”
He paused for a moment, and I wished I could see his face. Then he began.
“You must think very badly of me, my dear. I’m displeased, very sorry indeed, that you had to blunder into this. But you must understand… my motivation is entirely pure.”
I hadn’t intended to speak, but I blurted out, “Entirely pure? You kill two men and nearly kill another, and you’re going to ruin the Captain’s life, and you say your motivation was entirely pure?” My trembling increased with the anger and hurt.
I could almost feel his smile. “I understand your aggression very well, my dear. This must be a shock to you. But let me explain.”
The tones and words that sounde
d pleasant just hours ago sounded sinister now. I fell silent again.
He went on. “Doctor Pearson… was not always as fortunate as he is today. As a child, he was a resident of a very poor village… nestled in the mountains, ravaged by crime and poverty and famine… so secluded that law and prosperity could not touch it.”
“He changed his name,” I concluded aloud, almost without meaning to.
I expected him to ask me how I knew that, but he just continued, which was somehow worse. “Yes. Ran away, left his home, worked his way up until he was a renowned scientist. But he didn’t forget the people he’d left behind. Not once.”
“You don’t mean they’re still there?” I heard myself ask.
“Yes, they are. He checked on them less than a year ago, and barely escaped.”
I remembered Doctor Pearson’s big, sad eyes and for some reason an ache twinged in my chest.
“I don’t understand,” I said at last, to break the silence.
“Why, it’s quite simple indeed. The substance we seek in the galactic center will make him a rich man. He’ll finally be able to help them. Don’t you see, my dear? It’s not as bad as all that. We are helping a group of people to a better life—just not those that you thought we were.”
The pleasant voice sounded oily, slithering through my mind like poison. I didn’t want him touching me. I strained my arm, but it didn’t move from his grip.
“We didn’t mean to hurt anyone,” he said sadly, and I remembered his voice at the snack bar, sorrowful with what I thought had been compassion for Lee.
“Well, you did.” My voice reverberated slightly off the crates.
“And I am very displeased about that. But think of it, my dear… a few lives and injuries for the betterment of an entire community of suffering people. A small price to pay, is it not?”
I had sense enough to say, “It’s a price that people shouldn’t be forced to pay.”
True to his usual style, he ignored that. “Of course, you understand my position now. You know far too much. I wouldn’t hurt you, my dear, truly I wouldn’t. But we are very close to our quarry, very close indeed. My men are in position, and we have but a few hours before our mission is complete.
His men. I understood at last why he’d taken the pains to get his own personnel into some of the key positions. It had nothing to do with going or not going to the galactic center. It was about distracting our attention towards Lee so we wouldn’t see his real purpose—getting spies into engineering and on the bridge who could tell him everything that went on in the most vital areas of the ship. That way, he could make away with the substance as soon as it was obtained.
The cold calculation of it made me start to shiver again.
“You don’t understand,” he said pleasantly. “I’m sorry. I had hoped for more consistency from you, Miss Lloyd.”
“Consistency?” I cried.
“Indeed. Doesn’t your religion teach compassion for others?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you were quite willing that you and your colleagues should do what you consider wrong when it was done towards the aid of someone you have a personal connection to. But when it has to do with poor, strange people of whom you have never heard, and with whom you have never had any experience… ah, that is quite a different matter.”
The conviction of his words struck me silent, and fear prickled over my skin.
“You think me a very wicked person, Miss Lloyd. At least I am consistent in my creed.”
He heaved a sigh in the darkness, and the genuineness of it made my chest hurt even more.
“Well,” he went on at last, “I am of course disappointed, but I am not above using your inconsistency to our advantage.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, heart beating faster again.
I heard a rustling of canvas, then a pliable, textured object was laid in my hand.
I gasped as I brushed my thumb over the surface. “Elasson?” It was the young man’s cap. “Where did… how…”
“It’s my business to know things about people, Miss Lloyd.”
“Why…”
“Here is my bargain with you, my dear. In less than an hour, we will enter the galactic center, and moments later, we will be in the necessary range to acquire the substance. After that, we will leave, and you will hear no more of us. I require two things of you. First, you are not to tell anyone of this. Anything that you know, anything that you heard, anything that you guessed. Second, when the trial comes back on Earth, you are to refuse to testify.”
I opened my mouth to exclaim, but he quickly went on.
“See? I don’t even ask you to lie, Miss Lloyd. Only to be silent. As a sub-officer, you will not be required to testify. But your refusal will speak for itself.”
“But the Captain will lose his rank…”
“My dear, he is going to lose his rank whether Doctor Pearson and I are implicated or not.”
Again, his hard truth silenced me.
“And in return for your silence—your golden, compassionate silence—I will go within the year to the desert planet, and personally bring your Greek prince off of it and back to you.”
For whatever reason, it didn’t occur to me for a moment to doubt his word. If he said he would bring Elasson off the planet, then that was exactly what he was going to do.
And he was terribly right about everything. I wouldn’t have to lie. The Captain was going to lose his rank, no matter what, once he piloted into the galactic center and came back without something very important to show for it.
All I had to do was be silent.
And Elasson would be free.
I fingered the smooth fibers of the cap, and my eyes burned with tears. Elasson… how much longer can you survive? When will I see you again? Will you be all right?
“Time is running out, Miss Lloyd.”
Let us not do evil that good may come.
Where would it end? Already the plot was embroiled in lies, kidnapping, manslaughter, cheating—deception upon deception had been piled up until I ached under the weight of it.
And I was about to add another evil onto that very large pile.
Sometimes, when I was little, the Doctor had annoyed me when I tried to cover up a mistake, by saying, “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” in his gruff voice.
I supposed that twelve wrongs didn’t, either.
Elasson… please… be safe, Elasson…
I dropped the cap and opened my mouth to speak.
A clatter from the other side of the room interrupted me; sounding far away, but echoing closer.
The lift.
At the first shock of sound, Napoleon loosened his hold on my elbow slightly. With a barely-formed prayer, I gave my arm a tug and wrenched it from his grasp. Then I ran to one side, sprinting with the biggest steps I could make.
He cried out, the sound reaching my ears above the growing clatter, but I kept running, trying to go in the direction from which he had brought me. I screamed as my shin hit a low, open crate and the cold metal sliced my skin, but I forced myself to keep going.
Lee. He had to be close. This was about the right distance. But where was I?
The clatter stopped, and I waited a moment, breathing, thinking, feeling sticky, warm blood drip down my leg.
Two taps echoed, boots on metal, then I heard a tiny click as the lights in the room went on, revealing a very familiar face several meters away.
“Guilders!” I screamed. “Guilders, he’s back there!” I pointed back towards where Napoleon had stood, then turned to look over my shoulder.
The little captain had vanished.
Chapter XXIV
Anger pierced through my numbed emotions, and I sagged against the nearest barrel, drained from the emotion and the adrenaline. How could he? He knew I had believed in him. How could he?
My leg started throbbing, pulsing with heat and sharp pain. I’d done more than that. I’d cared for him. How could I be so stupid?
No. I had to warn the Captain.
Standing up straight, I looked around the room and spotted an open crate. That must be mine. Lee’s was to the right of it.
I limped forward, reached it, and tried to stop my hands from trembling as I opened it.
“Lee?” I cried, my voice hoarse again.
He was inside, curled in an awkward position, eyes closed, face pale in the shadows.
Guilders hurried up beside me. “What is…” He looked in the crate and fell silent from surprise, something I’d never seen him do before.
“I think he has a broken arm. Can you get him to sickbay? I have to warn the Captain.”
Guilders didn’t ask questions. He just reached in, and gently began to lift Lee out. I heard a soft moan as the chaplain’s right arm shifted, and somehow the sound sent energy into me again.
“Be careful!” I yelled over my shoulder as I set off on a limping run towards the door on the other side of the room.
This was Napoleon, I thought as I ran. Napoleon the clever, Napoleon the smooth, Napoleon the convinced-that-he-was-doing-right. What would be his next move? He must know that there was no way he could keep word from getting to the Captain now. What would he do? Not try to discredit my story. He would know the Captain wouldn’t fall for that, not without a long investigation. He’d have to move quickly.
I sped down the halls, my eyes still blinking in the light after extended time in the darkness. Crewmembers stopped and stared as I limped by, but I ignored them.
He’d have to take control himself, and take it fast. That was my best guess, anyway. He had men in navigation and engineering.
I reached the elevator and punched the button, then waited, heart pounding, for the door to open. When it did, I jumped in, nearly running headlong into the young mate who was already inside.
“Excuse me,” I panted, then made a split second decision. “E-Deck.”
As we sped down the ship, I breathed deeply and tried to think. Napoleon would want to take control of the bridge immediately. Nobody could win in this situation, not once he held the Captain hostage. The best we could hope for was a stymie.
Firmament: Machiavellian Page 17
