by JN Chaney
“Certainly,” said Lilith.
Seth watched as the screen flashed to an image of the hall—the same one he stood in now. “Focus on Cain’s door.”
The video magnified and centered. “How’s that?” asked Lilith.
“Yeah,” he said, waiting for something, anything, to happen. Nearly a full two minutes passed before the door finally slid open. Seth watched as his brother emerged from his quarters. “There we go.”
Cain wore a bag around his shoulder—his favorite satchel, which he’d brought from Fiore, years ago. He began walking through the hall, heading in the opposite direction Seth had arrived from. “Follow him,” ordered Seth.
The screen switched to another camera, focusing on Cain as he traveled the corridors. They followed him until he entered an elevator where the doors closed.
The camera switched again. When the lift arrived on deck sixteen, a largely uninhabited area, Cain continued his walk.
Several minutes later, and after a few more jumps between cameras, Cain entered bay twelve. He went to the far left wall and found a hatch, which he unhooked and climbed into. The camera froze, focusing on the hatch. “Based on the recordings I have here, he still hasn’t left,” said Lilith.
“What connects to that compartment he’s in?” asked Seth.
“There’s one other entrance, but he hasn’t used it.”
“Keep monitoring him until I arrive. Let me know if anything changes.”
“Understood,” said Lilith. The screen turned off and she disappeared.
“Okay, guys,” said Seth, calling to the others. “I’ve got our next destination. Get ready.”
Michael raised his hand. “Wait, sir. There’s something you should see.”
“What is it?” asked Seth.
Michael showed him a plastic bag with a metal object inside. It was covered in blood. “I found it in the bathroom, lodged right inside the waste dispenser. I’m no doctor, but what do you make of this?”
Seth took the bag and held it in the air, staring at the object inside. “It’s one of his tools. I’ve seen it before,” he said.
“Sir, do you think it’s the murder weapon?” asked Michael.
“We need to get the blood analyzed,” said Seth. “First thing’s first, though. We’re heading to population bay three. We still have a job to do.”
Twelve
Seth’s team arrived at the bay within fifteen minutes. Along the way, he considered calling Ariel to assist, should he need help getting the hatch open, but decided against it. Ariel and Cain were close friends, so involving her might not be the best idea.
Seth sent two officers to the other side of the tunnel, giving Cain nowhere to run. With Michael by his side, Seth could enter through the hatch in the population bay. Between the four of them, they’d have Cain completely trapped.
The bay was huge and filled with pods, each containing a future settler for the Eden’s eventual colony. Did Cain come here to sabotage them? Would dozens more be killed today? Or worse, thought Seth. Each population bay contained several hundred pods, all of which used nitrogen tanks for cooling. Nitrogen was much denser than oxygen, and displaced differently throughout the air. If someone knew which protocols to disable, they could wipe out an entire deck in less than a few hours. Cain wouldn’t need to set an explosive to kill them. If he wanted to, there were cleaner ways.
Dammit. He should have brought his armor—an oxygenated suit with reinforced padding. Oh well. No going back now.
He’d just have to be fast about this.
Michael found the hatch and readied his omni-tool. Seth gave him a nod to proceed, so he did, and in less than a minute he had the metal frame removed and resting on the floor. “You’ll have to squeeze in, but it opens up a few inches inside.”
“Got it. Thanks,” said Seth. He raised his foot and climbed into the hole, which was roughly the size of his chest. It was a tight fit, but with some awkward foot placement he was able to fit through.
He found the corridor a little snug and thin. He hardly had any room to move, and he had to walk sideways to fit. The walls twisted and curved, and seemed to grow darker the further he went. After about a dozen steps, he found it almost impossible to see ahead of himself.
Tapping his communicator, he brought the screen to life and filled the corridor with light. At last, he could now see ahead of himself…except now there was something blocking the path, something small and resting by the wall. Almost like a—
“Who’s there?” asked Cain, huddled on the floor. He had his forearm over his eyes, shielding them.
Seth doubled back at the sound of his brother’s voice. “Holy—Cain, is that you?”
“Seth?”
“Yeah, I came to get you. We need to talk about last night. I have to—”
“Take me to the brig, right?” finished Cain. His voice was quivering, like he’d been crying.
“I just want to ask you a few questions, alright?” asked Seth.
Cain took several quick breaths, tugging the side of his hair with his fingers. “They’ll kill me,” he said, whimpering. “Father and the others. They’ll send me through an airlock for what I did to Abel, even though it was an accident. Doesn’t matter, because Father hates me and Abel was his favorite. I can’t go.”
Seth’s heart raced as he listened to the words. A confession. The worst of his fears made real. “What did you do, Cain?”
“I didn’t mean to! It was an accident. I promise. I didn’t mean to hurt him.” He sniffled, wiping the snot from his nose.
Seth stood there, covered in sweat from the heat of this place, stunned into silence as the truth came tumbling freely out of his brother’s mouth. Cain had just confessed to murdering Abel, and all Seth could do was stand there.
“Please,” begged Cain. “You have to believe me.”
“O-Okay,” Seth finally managed to say. “Just…calm down…”
“What am I supposed to do?” his brother asked.
“You come with me. We’ll hear you out. I promise.”
Cain gripped his hair and tugged. “I’m dead. This is where it starts.”
“No, no…it’s okay. You can go on record. We’ll figure this mess out. Trust me, Cain. You still do, right? You still trust me?”
“Y-yeah,” he muttered. “I trust you.”
Seth reached to his side and unhooked a set of handcuffs, tossing them towards his brother. “Put those on for now. It’s protocol. We’ll get you to my office and then go from there. I’ll keep you safe.”
Cain stared at the handcuffs for a few seconds before finally reaching for them. Holding them, he couldn’t stop shaking. After dropping them a few times, he finally managed to put them on.
“Turn around and step forward. Go to the end of this corridor and stop. There are two guards waiting for us there. Do everything we tell you. Understand?”
Cain did as he was told, and together they met the officers in the other corridor. As Seth emerged from within the hatch, the cold air hit him like a blanket of ice. It was like stepping out of a sauna and into a freezer.
He finally had his suspect.
At long last, the investigation was nearly at an end.
Adam sat on the bridge, barely focused. Despite his best efforts, his mind would not be quieted. He drifted constantly between duty and grief. Between the death of his son and the mission to save tomorrow. Twenty years of war could never have prepared him for this.
“Captain, I have the latest report,” announced Lilith. Her voice brought him out of his trance.
“What is it?”
“We will be arriving at planet 2930-1193.C in approximately ten minutes. Engineering reports our systems are good. You’ll be glad to hear the ship is operating within acceptable parameters.”
“Good,” he said.
“I’ve also performed several in-depth scans over the last few hours. You’ll be pleased to know the results are quite
favorable.”
“Are they?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” she said. “I’m still running a test for soil compatibility. So far, I’d say we have cause to be optimistic. With your permission, I’d like to begin searching for viable landing zones, based on preferable temperature levels.”
“Right. Of course,” said Adam. “Go ahead. How long did you say before we get there?”
“Less than a few hours, sir,” she explained. “It won’t be long now.”
Thirteen
Seth waited in Security with his team. Cain sat in the brig, a small cell in the room behind the main office.
Paul stood guard at the brig door, a hulking man twice Cain’s size. No one would come or go through there without Seth’s permission. This prisoner wasn’t going anywhere.
No, not a prisoner, Seth reminded himself. He’s still my brother. I can’t forget.
How long before he had to report this to the captain? What would the old man say when Seth told him the truth? Cain believed he’d be killed for this, like their father was somehow capable of murdering his own son.
Shoot him out the airlock. Poof.
There’s no way. Not my father.
Adam had always been an honorable man, sworn to his duty and bound by his cause, but he was also a family man at heart. A loving father with a tender soul.
But should Cain be found guilty, the law was clear. Eye for an eye, and life for a life. Unless Seth proved otherwise, not even Adam’s mercy would be enough to save the guilty. Not without angering the crew. They wouldn’t allow a convicted murderer to escape justice, even if they kept him under lock and key. If Cain was responsible for the other incidents, too, he had no chance of surviving this.
If the captain didn’t do his duty and punish his son, the crew might very well demand their own form of justice, and such a thing could not be risked. Not in the deadly vacuum of space, here on the edge of the galaxy.
I need to question him, thought Seth. I need to understand what happened before it gets worse. He stood from his desk, eyeing the computer screen and the notes he’d taken on the investigation thus far. All of this would be behind him soon.
He went to the brig door where Paul stood towering over the room. The goliath stepped beside and let him pass. “I’ll knock when I’m done,” said Seth.
Paul nodded.
Seth stepped inside the brig, and the door slammed shut behind him.
Cain’s eyes widened. His puffy red cheeks, still wet with tears, reflected the overhead glow of the soft artificial light. “Seth,” said Cain, his voice raspy and hoarse. He stood behind a translucent wall. Two cameras watched from the upper corners, far out of reach. “Is Father angry? What did he say? Please, you have to tell him it was an accident. You have to—”
“He doesn’t know yet, but he will soon. That’s why I’m here. I need you to tell me what happened. In detail. I need everything you have.”
Cain nodded, scratching his head, nervously.
“Tell me the whole story.”
“I…was in my room when Abel showed up. He was angry and started yelling at me. He said he was going to tell Father about Lilith, and you know how mad he would get if he knew. I told him not to, but he wouldn’t listen. You know how Abel is. He hates me.” Cain scratched the side of his head. “He wouldn’t listen. I tried to tell him I’d take care of it. I said I’d tell Father the truth, but Abel was mad and…he attacked me. He punched me!”
“He hit you?” asked Seth.
“Yes, and you know, I had to defend myself. I pushed him. It only made him angrier and he jumped on top of me and started choking me. I didn’t know what to do!”
“What happened next?”
“I thought he was going to kill me, Seth. You have to believe me! I thought he was going to do it. I had to defend myself. I had to!”
“What did you do, Cain?” repeated Seth.
Cain paused, squeezing and gripping his hair. “I…I hit him with my pen. Just to make him stop. I stabbed his arm. It was instinct. That’s all. I thought he’d back off after that, but he didn’t. He just kept coming.”
So Michael and I were right. The tool we found was the weapon. “How did Abel get the wound in his neck?”
Cain hesitated. “It was…it was an accident. He fell on me. I didn’t do it. He fell on the pen. I didn’t stab him. It wasn’t my fault.”
Seth stared at him. “He fell on it?”
“Yes! I promise. You have to believe me, Seth. It was an accident!” Cain gripped his hair and squeezed until a few strands fell out, floating in the air.
Was he truly telling Seth the truth? Something about this didn’t feel right. He was so nervous, so frantic. Seth could chalk it up to the situation, but the way he spoke about what happened…Seth didn’t know what to believe.
“So you understand now, right?” asked Cain. You know it’s not my fault.”
Seth went to the door and knocked. “I’ll be back later.”
Cain pressed his palms against the translucent cage. “Please, don’t let Father hurt me. You believe me, right? You have to help!”
“I need time to process everything,” said Seth. “Try to get some rest.” He left the brig without another word.
He still didn’t know the full story, but the way Cain acted gave him pause. He could be lying. About which detail, specifically, Seth couldn’t say for sure, but he had his own theory.
The wound in Abel’s neck had been well placed, angled from the side. If Abel had done as Cain suggested and fallen on him, he’d have to awkwardly twist his head for the pen to stab him the way it did. The chances of that happening seemed slim, but he supposed anything was possible. Still, it all looked terribly unlikely. Whatever hopes Seth had for his brother’s innocence were quickly diminishing. If only he could turn the clock back and stop this from happening. If only—
His communicator beeped. Another call.
Azura appeared, a warm smile on her face. “Hey, it’s me,” she said. “I can’t talk for long, but I wanted to check in to see how you were doing.”
“I’m good. Just working on the investigation. Making progress. Is everything alright?”
“That’s the other reason I’m calling. We’re about to arrive at the new world. I thought you’d want to come see.”
“Already?” asked Seth. “I thought we had more time.”
“It’s happening within the hour. Come and see it with me. With everything that’s happened these last few days, we could stand to see something beautiful for a change. Don’t you think?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be there soon. I need to talk with my father first. I’ll join you after. Save me a spot?”
“Always,” she said, smiling.
Seth ended the call, then motioned to Michael.
“Sir?” he asked, quickly getting to his feet. He’d been sitting at Uriel’s desk, playing a math game on his communicator to pass the time.
“I need you to stay here with the others. I need to report in with the captain.”
“Sure thing, sir. Will you be gone long?”
“About an hour, maybe. I’ll let you know if I’m longer.”
“We’ll keep things under wraps,” said Steven, who was sitting a few feet away.
“Thanks,” said Seth, patting Michael’s shoulder as he left.
He wasn’t looking forward to seeing his father. The man had suffered so much these last few days, and now to give him this. He’d have to make a call, despite whatever grief he might be feeling.
Seth wished he could save him from it, but the Eden had an actual murderer to contend with—the first one in all the years since they left Fiore. A decision would have to be made, Seth knew, and the result would likely come at a cost.
Fourteen
Seth asked his father to meet him in the conference room, out of sight from the other bridge officers. There was no reason for them to know about this. Not yet.
&
nbsp; “Thanks for seeing me,” said Seth, shutting the door.
The old man nodded, motioning to take a seat at the table. “You have news about Abel?” he asked, a hint of anticipation in his voice.
Seth waited for Adam to join him. “I have a few things I need to talk with you about. Abel is one of them.”
Adam tapped his thumb on the surface of the table, a curious expression on his face. Small whiskers littered his chin, a sign he hadn’t shaved. “What else is there?”
“You asked me to investigate the blackouts and malfunctions happening across the ship,” said Seth. “Along the way, evidence has been revealed that leaves me to believe you were correct. I think someone is sabotaging the Eden.”
“I see.”
“The investigation hasn’t concluded yet, but I’m close.”
The old man thumbed the edge of the desk. “What of Abel?”
Seth took a deep breath, releasing a long and quiet sigh. “Murdered.”
His father balked. “What?”
“The autopsy revealed a puncture wound in his neck, which I discovered was made using a soldering pen. It seems Abel was killed somewhere else before being taken to the population bay where it was made to look like an accident.”
Adam tensed. “Who did this?”
“We have a suspect in custody,” Seth returned.
“Who?”
Seth hesitated. “I’m sorry to say, Father, but it’s Cain.”
Adam fidgeted in the chair. “Your brother? No, that can’t be right.”
“It is,” muttered Seth. “I didn’t want to believe it, but he’s already confessed.”
“This is absurd,” Adam fretted. “It has to be a mistake.”
“I wish it were.”
He held his forehead with the cuff of his palm, staring at the table. “Tell me what happened.”
Seth recounted the details of the events leading up to the arrest. “We found Cain on several of the feeds. In over half of them, he was present before the incidents. I approached him about the evidence and he gave me an alibi. I considered it done.”
