Engineer: A Sigma Sector Story

by McIntyre, Alistair

  Reeves struggled to untangle the web presented to him, but his thoughts dwindled when Ally piped up.

  “You’ll never get away with this, Banion,” she barked. Reeves had felt her fury before, but she’d never been this pissed. “The UTF will hunt you down and—”

  A tremendous smack cut her short. Melissa gasped. Reeves tensed all over, the mental image of what just happened igniting a dark fury inside him. Alicia moaned in pain as Banion demanded, “And who is going to tell anyone what happened here? You think we’ll keep you alive after we’re done using you as hostages? You’re even more stupid than I thought.”

  Reeves started to get to his feet, but Melissa hauled him back down. Her wide eyes implored him, not believing how stupid Reeves was about to be.

  She better believe it.

  Reeves took a deep breath and realized she was right. Diving in there right now was probably not a brilliant move. Anyway, they needed to—

  A noise from the other end of the hallway snapped both engineers’ heads in that direction. Someone was coming.

  Reeves froze, not sure where to run. His assistant didn’t hesitate. Melissa was already charging as fast as possible, keeping her head down, back towards the maintenance ladder. Reeves followed, his muscles all tingly with excitement, or fear. He ducked inside the door and it hissed shut, cutting off the new voices carrying down the hallway.

  The two engineers stood on the small landing, huddled together by the space constraints and by the reassurance of human contact. At least if they were discovered and killed, they wouldn’t be alone. Melissa leaned in close to Reeves’s ear.

  “My link fell off,” she whispered, panic infused in her tone.

  At first he wanted to scream in frustration, but then he had another idea. He tapped his own link and connected it remotely to Melissa’s. They’d set up the connection a year ago to perform an experiment. Who’d have thought that a work-related task could end up being so useful?

  In the hallway, Melissa’s link powered up silently as Reeves turned on its video array. The door between the hallway and maintenance shaft was soundproofed, so the loud voices coming through the link’s speaker didn’t faze the two engineers. Disappointment filled Reeves as he saw the image of his senior technician step into the camera’s line of sight.

  Zhi walked next to Arkady, and neither man looked like a prisoner. Reeves could’ve strangled that old bastard, but Arkady was talking.

  “That guy had no idea what he was getting into,” the security chief said with a smile. “Just a decoy. One less mouth to feed.”

  Zhi shrugged as Arkady got a good belly laugh out of that. Reeves shook his head as he thought of who that guy might be. Despite this new information, Reeves still struggled to piece it all together. At first glance, he thought Banion had set up a fake kidnap-and-ransom situation, but that sounded farfetched, even for that evil bastard.

  On the floating screen, the two men passed by and their voices disappeared. Thankfully they hadn’t noticed the link lying on the floor, although from a strange shadow on the footage, Reeves suspected the link had fallen behind one of those stupid plants that the scientists insisted on decorating the halls with. The little camera had provided a great angle considering Melissa had dropped it accidentally.

  No more answers hid in the maintenance shaft, so Reeves motioned for Melissa to follow him as they set out to find out exactly who “that guy” was.

  Chapter 5

  In the short jog down the hall, Reeves must’ve checked over his shoulder a thousand times. Paranoia finally sank its talons into his shoulders, right at the base of his neck. They’d been lucky so far, but he couldn’t shake the growing feeling that eventually he and Melissa would get caught. Standing in front of a door to a lab with no windows to the hallway, Reeves feared that Arkady had chosen this room for that very reason. After a long, heavy sigh, Reeves activated the door.

  The two engineers stepped into the room and halted as the door automatically slid closed behind them. Reeves looked away from the grotesque display strapped to a lab bench, but he still felt that growing pressure rising from his stomach. Seeing an eviscerated corpse for the first time would do that to an engineer. With his eyes closed, Reeves took a few deep breaths, hoping the acrid taste building in the back of his throat would pass.

  Just when he felt he’d regained control, he opened his eyes in time to watch Melissa violently empty the contents of her stomach through the fingers futilely trying to block the flow. The splattering sound of the vomit meeting the floor immediately brought back Reeves’s own nausea. As Melissa’s body convulsed and heaved for a second time, Reeves wretched uncontrollably all over the floor.

  Ignoring the butchered mess on the table, the two washed their hands in the sink and rinsed out their throats. While cleaning themselves up, neither Reeves nor Melissa noticed the appearance of the Automated Sanitation Device that silently hovered over to clean the vomit. By the time he turned around, Reeves only caught a glimpse of the ASD slipping back into its cubby under one of the cabinets.

  “Efficient little bastard,” Reeves mumbled as he slowly made his way back to the scene of the murder.

  How could Arkady and Zhi do something like this? From the looks of things, the mutilated man strapped to the bench had been tortured mercilessly prior to his demise. Had the situation not already been grim enough, now it looked like they had two psychopaths to contend with. Melissa appeared unsteadily by Reeves’s side and gripped onto his arm at the sight of the victim. She dry heaved a little and coughed up something horrible before composing herself.

  “They vivisected him,” she said.

  “Maybe they really, really wanted to find out what he ate for lunch.”

  Melissa gave him that look again, the one that would shame a lion into becoming a vegetarian.

  “This is Fabregas, right?” Reeves asked.

  “You met him a few hours ago, Graham,” she said. “You don’t even remember what he looks like?”

  “I’m pretty sure he didn’t look like that a few hours ago.”

  Melissa slapped his arm and stormed off a few steps. “Show some respect for the dead. You heard Arkady. Antonio had no idea what he was getting himself into. He might’ve not even thought he was part of something illegal.”

  Reeves wanted to cover the brutalized remains, but this lab looked seldom used and poorly stocked. He’d yell at Tilda about that if they were still alive at the end of this. Instead, he joined Melissa, who’d plonked herself down on the ground, back against the cabinets, looking away from Fabregas. Lines of stress on her face appeared that Reeves had never noticed before. Reeves sat in silence, trying to avoid thinking about the body on the table nearby, but no helpful distractions jumped to mind. Even the thought of Alicia naked seemed highly inappropriate for once.

  The hopelessness of the situation sank in at the thought of his kidnapped lover. Was he a jerk for not risking everything for her as soon as he saw her chained to a chair? He was sure that she’d think so. What could he have done differently? Had he missed the opportunity to save her earlier?

  Melissa interrupted his pity party. “So what do we do now?”

  She’d been asking that question a lot recently. In truth, he was her boss, so automatically she’d defer to him for the next step, but her abdication of responsibility was actually starting to annoy him. It wasn’t like he had experience in any of this. Subterfuge wasn’t a topic in any engineering class he’d ever attended. He would’ve definitely shown up for class more often if that was on the agenda, though.

  “Sturm is probably locked down on the bridge now,” he said, pulling out his link and calling the captain. “If she isn’t by now, she needs to be.”

  “Reeves, where the hell have you been?” Sturm demanded as soon as her face appeared in the space above his wrist.

  “Good to see you, too, Captain.”

  “You turned your link off.” She sighed. “I thought you were dead.”

  “Would that
be good or bad?”

  “Good, because then I wouldn’t have to suffer your incessant ramblings about space monkeys.”

  “Captain Sturm, they’re the master race, and they’re just biding their—”

  “Engineer,” she interrupted. “During your absence, Commander Harrington informed me that Security Officer Arkady has detained JE Fabregas,” Sturm continued. “I understand that they’ve been interrogating him on the subject of the sabotage.”

  “Interrogating?” Reeves asked, incredulous. “Does this look like interrogation to you, Captain?”

  He flashed his link around to the remains of Antonio Fabregas. Some of the blood pooling in a deep wound piercing his side overflowed and splashed onto the floor. Within a second, the clean-up automaton emerged from its home to perform the necessary duty.

  “Holy stars,” Sturm gasped. “What—?”

  “What happened here?” Reeves said, turning the link back to himself. The traditionally stoic captain’s eyes remained fixed in the wide-open position. “What happened here was Arkady and Zhi playing medieval executioner onboard your ship.”

  Rage flowed in the captain’s words as her eyes narrowed. “Those miscreants didn’t plan all of this. Who told them to do this?”

  Reeves reminded himself that his boss’s righteous anger wasn’t directed towards him, but her tone did irk him. To deflect her rage in the right direction, he relayed everything he and Melissa had heard outside the main lab door. With each mention of Murray Banion’s name, Sturm’s face twisted into a deeper and deeper scowl. By the end of the story, Reeves wanted to tell her to lighten up or her face would stay that way, but now didn’t seem the time.

  “Banion is trying to hold my ship hostage?” She hammered out each word. “The Scythe is mine, and no one else’s. I’m running us on full propulsion back to safe space.”

  “They haven’t hacked into the engines at all?”

  “No, it seems that Bashan knows how to take care of his responsibilities.”

  “The sabotage to the scanners wasn’t my fault—”

  Sturm stopped him with a serious glare.

  “You have a lot to learn about leadership, Engineer. The scanners are your responsibility ultimately. No one else’s.” In a slightly softer tone, she added, “But if you manage to come up with a safe way of resolving our problem, your deficient supervisory skills shall be downplayed in the final inquiry.”

  “Final?” he asked. “Schumacher going to take me out back and hang me?”

  She ignored him, which infuriated him all the more.

  “I have no more communication beacons to launch with this update, unfortunately. Someone jettisoned most of them, so now we have to get into contact range another way.”

  “Okay, so you’re flying us full steam ahead, but that will take a lot of time that we don’t have,” Reeves pointed out. “I’m not sure how long Malk can keep them out of the engine room.”

  He didn’t have to say it, but if Banion compromised the engines, they’d be sitting ducks with at least two psychotic killers onboard. Reeves felt like he’d seen this in an old horror movie before, and he was pretty sure the crew hadn’t survived.

  Melissa leaned over his shoulder.

  “Captain Sturm, are you sure you can trust the crew on the bridge?” she asked, pausing every few words, fearing a backlash. It was a good question. This plot went deeper into the nether-regions of the ship than anyone would’ve guessed even twelve hours ago.

  “None of them have given me a reason to suspect them. The comms officer, navigator, and pilot are all secure in here with me. Banion won’t be breaching this door.”

  Considering everything else the enemy had achieved so far, that promise sounded like wishful thinking.

  “Both of you need to make your way up to the bridge, for your own safety,” Sturm said. “How long until someone else comes to check out your dead companion?”

  Reeves hadn’t thought of that, but there was no telling anymore. What if the crazies wanted to come back and admire their trophy? He stood up and paced around the room, uneasy with the Captain’s question. Gruesome images of Arkady and Zhi breaking down the lab door and vivisecting him started a cold sweat down his back. Judging by the results of his rampant imagination, he’d need more than a Gavari doctor to fix him up.

  “Where’s Harrington, Captain?” he asked, prompted by a sudden disturbing thought.

  The captain’s shoulders sagged slightly at the mention of the commander’s name. “We haven’t heard from him since he left the bridge to meet Zhi and Arkady to question Fabregas.”

  That sounded like information Sturm should’ve already shared with the class.

  Melissa perked up. “You don’t think he’s part of this do you?”

  Reeves replied, “I’m not sure of anything anymore.”

  “Harrington’s a company man,” Sturm pointed out, but Reeves could tell she wasn’t convinced of her own words. “He’d never betray Schumacher to Banion.”

  Reeves definitely hoped so, but everything had turned upside-down so fast that it was hard to keep everything straight. Banion was a tool, but he’d never suspected the man of being capable of getting himself dressed in the morning, never mind orchestrating the capture and ransom of an antimatter harvester. Either way, Reeves couldn’t leave Alicia’s life in that man’s hands.

  “Captain, you’re right about one thing,” he said.

  “What’s that?”

  He stared at the door.

  “We can’t stay here.”

  “How are you going to get to the bridge?” Sturm asked.

  “Oh, we’re not coming to the bridge.”

  “What?” Melissa and the captain exclaimed in unison.

  “We can’t abandon our friends.”

  “Engineer Reeves,” Sturm started, her disciplinarian voice kicking in. “Graham, do not—”

  His link vibrated to indicate the end of the connection. Melissa stared at him, her expression asking him what the hell he was doing. In truth, he didn’t really know. What he did know, was that he couldn’t run and hide in the bridge while Zhi and Arkady eyed his woman. Alicia deserved more than that. So yes, he’d hung up on the captain. Not the best career move, obviously. The link lit up again as Sturm tried to contact him. It was nice to know she cared. He turned the device off.

  “Graham, are you sure about—?”

  Her question trailed off into nothingness as both engineers jumped at the quiet hiss of the lab door opening.

  ***

  Commander Jon Harrington, bruised and bloodied, staggered into the small lab and collapsed in a heap. Both Reeves and Melissa stood in shock, staring at the battered commander, who still continued to inch his way towards them, dragging himself awkwardly across the floor. The door slid shut, but neither engineer moved. Only at the appearance of the ASD did they snap out of their trance. The little machine mopped up the trail of blood that the commander left as he trudged forward.

  “Help… me,” Harrington croaked, before his face fell to the floor and he stopped moving.

  Reeves started towards Harrington. “Get him up.”

  Between the two of them, Reeves and Melissa propped the large man against the cabinets on the floor. Melissa spoke encouraging words of false hope while Reeves retrieved the medical kit from an upper cabinet. At least Tilda had deemed it necessary to keep that little nuance of the lab up to date.

  With no formal medical training to speak of, Reeves rummaged through the supplies, wondering what the appropriate treatment was. Melissa checked the man’s breathing and heart in a primitive manner.

  “I don’t think he’s going to die,” she said, not as certainly as Reeves would’ve liked, but he had to work with what he had.

  “Okay, then let’s just give him a painkiller.”

  One of Harrington’s sleeves was slashed open from elbow to shoulder, so they pried open a gap to stick the patch. Only then did the horrendous gash come into view.

  “Oh my star
s, that’s deep,” Melissa said, recoiling at the sight.

  Blood flowed freshly from the wound. The tight sleeve of Harrington’s uniform must’ve held it closed somehow. Reeves really wished that Schumacher had put out the cash for the high-end model suits that could automatically disinfect and seal up wounds like these.

  In the medical kit, he found a small bandage and applied it to the nasty cut. The self-sealing adhesive formed around Harrington’s bicep and also applied a mild painkiller. The two engineers only had to wait a few minutes before the commander came to.

  “Where am I?” he asked, as groggily as if he’d just woken from a three-week-long coma.

  “You’re on SD2, in a lab with two engineers, a robot, and a corpse,” Reeves said.

  The haze in the man’s eyes faded immediately.

  “A corpse?”

  “They killed JE Fabregas,” Melissa said, covering her mouth and turning away at the thought of the massively lacerated body that lay only meters from her.

  “They?” Harrington asked. “Arkady and his goons, you mean?”

  Reeves’s eyes narrowed. “You knew about them?”

  Harrington pointed at his bruised face.

  “You think I did this to myself, Reeves? Get a grip. Arkady’s thugs jumped me after I refused to play ball with Banion’s plans. Idiots. They’ll never pull it off.”

  Reeves took a moment of contemplation, digesting yet another piece of the puzzle. How did it all fit?

  “But you’re the one who told Sturm that Arkady had Fabregas in custody,” he said.

  “That was about a minute before my ass was handed to me, and I was left to die around the corner.”

  Obviously Harrington was still in pain, despite the medication seeping from the bandage into his bloodstream. Every few moments, the man would try to move and then stop with his face scrunched up in agony. Whoever had done this had really worked him over, so unless this was a very elaborate, and totally unnecessary, ploy, Reeves for once trusted that Harrington was on the right team.