Lucien’s blood turned to ice. “They can’t have followed us already!”
“No, sir,” Pandora replied. “It’s not big enough to be the enemy cruiser, and there’s no jamming field to accompany it. Sensors indicate the contact is biological in nature.”
Biological. It took a moment for that to sink in. “Take us in for a closer look!” Lucien urged.
“Aye, Commander.”
Before long, a strange, luminous creature came swirling out of the murky ocean. Its entire body glowed brightly, and it trailed hundreds of thin tentacles from its bulbous center. Pandora hovered the galleon in front of it, and the creature swam up to them, pressing several of its glowing tentacles to the viewports. Black circles that might have been eyes stared at them from the underside of those tentacles.
“Incredible…” Lucien whispered, standing and walking up to the nearest viewport to stare into one of those black eyes.
“I wonder if it’s intelligent?” Addy asked.
Lucien tapped a finger against the viewport where the nearest eye was, and the luminous tentacle reared back from the viewport, regarding him from a distance. After a moment, it came inching back. The tip of that tentacle met the glass where his hand was…
And then it seemed to reach through the glass and wrap around his wrist with a glowing band of light. Lucien felt nothing, but the hairs on the back of his hand stood straight up, as if from a static charge. He recoiled from the viewport, blinking furiously.
The tentacle reared back to regard him once more, then the entire thing swam off, zipping up over the bridge and out of sight.
“Did anyone else see that?” he asked.
“You scared it,” Addy said.
“No, I mean…” What did he mean? It couldn’t have actually reached through the viewport. He’d been up all night. He was tired, and now he was seeing things.
“We’re getting side-tracked,” Jalisa said. “Has everyone forgotten there’s a hostile alien cruiser chasing us?”
Lucien turned from the viewport with a frown. “Pandora? Have your bots found anything yet?” They couldn’t jump away until they knew how the Faros were following them.
The bot stared mutely back at him, her pink holoreceptors brightening and dimming, as if she were scanning him.
“Panda?” Lucien pressed.
“No,” she replied quietly. “All scans are complete. There are no tracking devices in the hangar, and no viruses in our systems.”
“Then how did they follow us? Twice.”
“I’m afraid there is only one other possibility,” Pandora replied.
Lucien heard a muffled boom behind him, and he turned to see blast-shields slamming down over the viewports.
“Who did that?”
“Not me,” Garek replied.
“I don’t even know how to do that,” Addy said.
“Pandora?” Lucien asked.
“I did it. And this.”
“What the…” Jalisa trailed off. “I’m locked out of my console!”
“Me, too!” Addy said.
Lucien glared at Pandora. “What are you doing?”
She stared back at him. “I have the conn, Commander.”
“I didn’t give it to you,” Lucien pointed out.
“No, you didn’t,” Pandora confirmed.
Chapter 27
“You’d better explain yourself fast,” Lucien warned.
“I have good reason to believe that one of you has been broadcasting our location to the enemy.”
“What reason?” Lucien demanded.
“Despite rigorous searching, we’ve found nothing that would enable anyone to track us. I have, therefore, concluded that there must be a spy on board.”
Lucien felt his eyes narrowing. “How could the Faros possibly have a spy among us if we’ve just met them?”
“It’s been mentioned already that they may have met us previously without our knowledge,” Pandora said.
“How do we know you aren’t the spy?” Lucien said.
“By what means? My systems are independent of the ship’s, and I have only had contact with the Faros through the ship’s comms. I know better than to accept foreign data packets, so the only way to inject a virus into my systems would be by physical contact, and according to the Captain’s wishes, I stayed aboard the Inquisitor during your encounters with the enemy. Regardless, we will know soon enough if I am the leak.”
“How?”
“I’ve isolated the crew from all the ship’s systems and viewports, so there is no possible way for any of you to determine our next location. If the enemy tracks us again, it will mean that either I am the spy, or that we somehow missed finding their tracking device. I’ve plotted our next jump, and we’ll be leaving this system in less than five minutes.”
“If you’re the spy, we’ll be helpless with you at the helm and everyone else locked out of their stations,” Lucien said.
“Captain Tyra has sufficient authority to override my lock-out protocol, and I’ve enabled limited functionality for the Captain’s control station—sensors only. If you are worried that I am the spy, please feel free to shut me down, and have the captain standing by to restore control to the crew as soon as we are followed. If, however, we are not followed, we must conclude that one of the crew is a spy, and take appropriate action to find that individual.”
Lucien went back to the captain’s station and found he could still access the sensor grid, but only locally—he couldn’t access bigger-picture displays that might pinpoint their location. It would be enough to reveal whether or not they were followed to the next system, but not enough to figure out where they were.
“All right. Addy, send a message to med bay and tell the captain to join us as soon as she’s available.”
“I can’t access the comms…” Addy replied.
“Not even shipboard comms?”
“No, sir.”
“Then go down there and get her yourself.”
“Yes, sir,” Addy replied, already rising from her station.
“Jalisa, deactivate Pandora.”
“With pleasure.” Jalisa walked over to the nav station and opened an access panel in Pandora’s neck. “Good night,” she said as she flicked the switch.
“G-oood n-i-ight-t-t,” Pandora stuttered as her holoreceptors flickered and died. She slumped in her chair, and Jalisa leaned over the helm to read the nav displays.
“Can you access the helm?” Lucien asked.
Jalisa shook her head. “No, sir. It’s all dead.”
Lucien walked up to see for himself. The only display currently active at the helm was the jump timer. He tried accessing the controls himself, but they wouldn’t respond to him.
“Don’t trust me?” Jalisa asked.
Lucien regarded her. “If Pandora’s right, we might not even be able to trust ourselves.”
They watched the jump timer counting down.
“Five seconds…” Jalisa said.
Everything flashed white, and the sensor grid went from showing a hazy view of Snowflake’s subsurface ocean, to a broad swath of space in some unknown star system. There were no contacts on the grid besides their own.
“All clear,” Lucien said. The system they’d jumped to was a binary star system with ten planets, but he couldn’t tell much else.
Jalisa returned to the gunnery station and they waited to see if they would be followed.
Eventually Addy came back with Tyra and Garek. Brak walked in behind them. Lucien watched the Gor curiously, wondering what he’d been doing during the last engagement.
“Report, Commander,” Tyra said as she strode up to him.
Lucien vacated her chair.
“We jumped about ten minutes ago, ma’am. Still nothing on sensors.”
Tyra nodded as she took her seat.
“Have you been able to disable Pandora’s lock-out?” Lucien asked.
“I tried, but remote access is disabled,” Tyra replied.
&nbs
p; Lucien frowned. “Can you do it from here?”
She brought up an override prompt, but didn’t enter her code. “I’d like to wait until we’ve tested Pandora’s theory. At least a few hours.”
“What are we supposed to do in that time?” Addy asked.
“You don’t have to stick around,” Tyra replied. “You might want to get some rest. It’s been a while since we got any sleep.”
A while was an understatement. Their last downtime had been almost six hours ago, and they’d spent it in the officers’ lounge instead of sleeping. Since then, they’d been up all night running from the Faros.
“Someone needs to stay here to watch you,” Lucien said.
“In case I’m the spy?” Tyra asked, arching an eyebrow at him.
“Well… yes.”
She shrugged. “All right, who’s going to keep me company?”
“I stay,” Brak said. “I already sleep.”
That explained why they hadn’t seen or heard from Brak.
“What if he’s the spy?” Jalisa asked. “We don’t know where he went while we were meeting the Faros. He disappeared and then mysteriously reappeared just in time to help us get away. Maybe he was captured and then released.”
Brak hissed at her. “I cloak and hide to find way to free slaves.”
“Jalisa’s right,” Tyra said. “And Brak no longer has a rank. He shouldn’t even be on the bridge. Anyone else?”
Brak averted his eyes from Tyra. She was unworthy of his sight again.
“I’ll stay,” Jalisa said.
“Fine with me,” Tyra said. “Any other objections?”
No one said anything.
“Good. In the meantime, Garek, I want you to schedule body scans and mind probes for the entire crew.”
“That will take a while to get through, ma’am,” Garek replied.
“See how fast you can get it done. Start with the away team.”
“What about you?” Jalisa asked.
“I’ll go last since I need to be here to disable the lock-out in case we’re followed.”
“And who’s going to scan Garek?” Jalisa said.
“I will,” Tyra replied.
“What if all the scans come back clean and we aren’t followed?” Lucien asked.
“Then one of the crew is a spy, but we’ll have no way of finding out who,” Tyra said. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, Commander. You’re all dismissed. Go get some rest.”
* * *
On their way off the bridge, Addy slipped her hand into Lucien’s and flashed a smile at him. “You want to join me in the officers’ lounge for a drink?”
Lucien blinked bleary eyes at her. “Aren’t you tired?”
“Yes, but I can’t sleep knowing that we could be called back to the bridge at any second.”
Lucien nodded.
“So?” Addy pressed. “I bet everyone else is going straight to their bunks. We’ll have the place all to ourselves.
“All right,” Lucien said.
They arrived at Starlight—a misnomer at the moment with all the viewports blast-shielded—and went to sit at the bar. Kip, the bartender bot, stood frozen behind the counter. Lucien waved to him, and his holoreceptors flared to life, casting the shiny bar counter in a neon blue light.
“Hello again, Commander!” Kip said. Glancing at Addy, he added, “And Lieutenant. What can I get for you two?”
“A beer,” Lucien said.
“Same,” Addy replied.
“Coming right up!”
Kip sent their drinks sliding across the counter. Lucien raised his polycarbonate mug and tipped it toward Addy’s, clacking them together in the quiet bar.
Lucien raised his mug for a sip.
Piano music trickled down from the ceiling, gradually joined by a vocal accompaniment from one of New Earth’s more popular artists.
“You never answered my question,” Addy said.
“What question?”
“Down in the caves. We were interrupted when we ran into the Faros. I asked why you joined the mission, but you never had the chance to tell me.”
“There’s not much to tell…” Lucien trailed off as a bright light appeared in his peripheral vision. He turned and peered over Addy’s shoulder for a better look.
A light was reflecting off the glossy floor tiles on the other side of the bar, but it disappeared after only a few seconds. Did one of the glow panels just burn out? he wondered.
“What’s wrong?” Addy asked.
Lucien got up and walked to the other side of the bar. When he got there, he saw that there weren’t any glow panels where he’d seen the light, much less one that had mysteriously burned out. He walked all the way around the bar, searching for the source of the light, but he returned to his place at the bar, having found nothing.
“I thought I saw something,” he explained as he sat beside Addy once more. He took a gulp of his beer.
“If you think that’s going to distract me from the question, you’re wrong,” Addy said. “You’ve just made me more curious.”
Lucien looked at her, uncomprehending; then he remembered her question and the convenient timing of his interruption. “Sorry. I wasn’t trying to distract you.”
“And yet you still haven’t answered,” Addy pointed out.
Lucien smiled. “I came on this mission to find proof that Etherus is who he says he is, but…” He took another sip of beer.
“But?”
“According to the clerics, my mind probe says otherwise. They think I’m subconsciously conflicted, and that I came to confirm my doubts, not my faith.”
“Interesting. Well, the results of mind probes are open to interpretation. You probably do have doubts, but that doesn’t mean you came because of them. Besides, conscious motives trump subconscious ones every time. Otherwise we should place more weight on what we do in our dreams than what we do while we’re awake.”
“Good point,” Lucien replied. “Never thought of that.” He drained his mug and glanced over to see that Addy’s drink was also finished. She waved Kip over and ordered another two beers.
“Trying to get me drunk?” he asked.
“Maybe,” Addy replied. Her hand found his thigh, and she tucked one of her feet behind his.
He felt a sudden warmth buzzing in his veins that had nothing to do with the beer. Addy leaned close and whispered in his ear, “I want you, Lucien.”
Her hand left his thigh and landed somewhere more intimate instead.
He turned to face her, his eyes searching hers. “I thought you were looking for more than just sex?”
“That doesn’t mean sex isn’t part of it.”
What am I complaining for? Lucien thought. He leaned in and kissed her. Something sparked, and suddenly they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.
“Let’s go,” Addy whispered against his lips.
Lucien nodded, and they left the Officers’ lounge at a brisk pace.
“What about your drinks?” Kip called after them with a frothing mug of beer in each hand.
“They’re all yours,” Lucien called back.
“Automatons don’t drink!” Kip objected.
His objection fell on deaf ears as they crashed into the elevator doors, kissing each other greedily. Lucien fumbled for the call button, and they almost fell into the elevator when the doors opened. They made out in the elevator, too, while Lucien mentally selected the ship’s crew quarters for their destination.
When the elevator stopped, Lucien led Addy out by the hand, taking her to his quarters. He waved the door open, and Addy jumped up, locking her legs around his waist. She kissed him again, stealing all the air from his lungs as they stumbled through his quarters.
They fumbled to remove each other’s jumpsuits, and fell into his bed half naked and gasping for air. Addy finished removing her jumpsuit, giving him a nice view as she did so. He stripped naked next, and then they made love and fell asleep in each other’s arms. Lucien�
�s last conscious thought was that he was a fool for turning her down the first time.
Some time later they awoke in a groggy haze to the sound of Tyra’s voice. Lucien sat up quickly, irrationally thinking that she was standing in his quarters, reprimanding them for improper conduct, but the sound was coming over the ship’s speakers.
“This is Captain Forster speaking. I’ve deactivated the lock-out and restored functionality to my control station. It’s been eight hours since we arrived in this system and we haven’t been followed, so I’ve plotted a jump back to Astralis. There’s still a chance that the enemy did follow us, but that they have remained cloaked in order to follow us back to our base. To guard against this, I’ve sent a message warning Astralis in advance of our arrival.
“All bridge crew must now return to their stations. I repeat, all bridge crew, return to your stations. We jump in ten minutes.”
Lucien rubbed the sleep from his eyes and turned to see Addy cover a yawn. “Good morning,” he said.
“It is a good morning,” she replied. “I can’t believe we slept for so long.”
“Not long enough,” Lucien said. “I need a cup of caf.”
“More like a pot,” Addy replied as she climbed naked out of his bed and slipped into her jumpsuit.
“And some breakfast,” Lucien replied while putting on his own jumpsuit. “Let’s go. If we’re lucky we’ll all be dismissed after the jump.”
“If that happens, it’s because the lock-out worked and we really weren’t followed. That’ll mean one of us is a spy,” Addy replied.
Lucien shrugged. “Seems like a small price to pay for some caf and eggs.”
Addy smiled.
They hurried up to the bridge and arrived with just one minute to spare. Everyone else was already at their stations, and no one missed the fact that he and Addy arrived together.
“Nice of you two to join us,” Tyra said.
Lucien took his place beside her and waited, watching the jump timer over her shoulder. He could also read the coordinates for their destination, but that was no secret. They all already knew where Astralis was.
That was when it hit him. “Captain…”
“Yes, Commander?” Tyra asked, not looking away from her displays.
Dark Space Universe by Jasper T. Scott Page 18
