Humal Sequence 1: A Breath of Hope

by Robert Taylor

  Hamilton had only been in the medical bay twice during the trip. The first time was to have his ribs checked and the second to check on Lewis’ victims. It was unchanged from his last visit.

  They put Smith on the operating table.

  “OK, doc’” Hamilton said. “Do an autopsy and let me know when you’re done. Until then I’ll have to confine both you and Charlton to the medical bay. Sorry.”

  The pair shrugged, then turned to prepare for their grisly task.

  Jones and Hamilton left them to it and returned to the security room. The medical bay door was locked behind them by Klane.

  “OK,” said Hamilton, once the trio were together again. “Any suggestions as to our next move?”

  A silence was his only answer.

  “Oh, come on! One of you must have some ideas?”

  “I don’t see that there’s much else we can do.” Klane said.

  “Except for Carl and Vogerian’s rooms’, we’ve searched everywhere else.”

  “Hmmm. We need to see those rooms.” Hamilton admitted.

  “There’s my survey.” Jones remembered. “We can check for hidden areas. It seems probable our murderous guest is hiding in one.”

  “That’s true,” Hamilton agreed. “How far did you get with your plan of the ship?”

  “I’ve got all the data,” Jones confessed. “I was just starting to draw up the plan.”

  “How long would it take you to finish?”

  “Not more than an hour or so. It was gathering the measurements that took the time.”

  “OK. Get on it right away. Let me know when you’ve finished it.” Hamilton ordered.

  “Right.” Jones agreed, leaving.

  Hamilton regarded Klane evenly. “If there really is a hidden area, as seems likely, then Vogerian must have known about it.”

  “Which means that he probably knew about the stowaway,” Klane continued. “And therefore planned to murder someone all along.”

  “I wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t collected everyone into one place?” Hamilton mused.

  “Probably would have been more deaths.”

  “I’m not so sure,” Hamilton frowned. “If Vogerian had planned this, as we assume, then he couldn’t have had any knowledge of who his assassin would meet first.”

  “Which suggests that he ordered the assassin to kill who ever he found first.”

  “But what purpose would that serve?”

  Klane was silent for a while before venturing. “Perhaps it serves no purpose, except to add confusion and fear.”

  Hamilton nodded slowly. “Hmmm, I suppose so. But it just doesn’t ring true!”

  Klane looked puzzled. “Why not?”

  “It’s too obvious!” Hamilton hissed angrily. “All along I’ve suspected Vogerian. Everything points to him. If he has gone to this much trouble to confound and delay us, then why is he making it so obvious? Why isn’t he trying to frame someone else?”

  Klane shrugged. “Maybe it’s not Vogerian. Maybe it’s Carl.”

  “Could be,” Hamilton admitted. “But I don’t see how he’d be privy to the schematics of the ship. And how would he manage to have someone smuggled aboard? No, I don’t think it’s Carl.”

  “So where does that leave us?”

  “Back where we started,” Hamilton sighed. “None the wiser.” He scratched his head thoughtfully. “The assassin would have had to have been aboard all the time.”

  “Obviously,” Klane scoffed. “What do you think he did? Space walk across from another ship in hyperspace?”

  Hamilton scowled at her. “I mean, he’d have had to been aboard before us. There’s no way he could have sneaked across with us on the survey launch. He’d have had to been here all along. Maybe it’s one of the previous crew.”

  “Those mercenaries, you mean?”

  Hamilton nodded. “It seems logical. It would also explain why the others were gotten rid of. I wonder if our assassin knows what happened to his friends?”

  “If they are his friends.” Klane pointed out.

  “Indeed.” Hamilton shook his head wearily.

  “So what’s next, apart from the search for hidden areas?” Klane inquired.

  As if on cue, Jones’ voice crackled over their headsets.

  “We’ve got trouble,” The black man reported. “All my notes and data on the ship have been stolen.”

  Hamilton’s face was indescribable. He was unable to speak. The muscles of his jaw bulged as he ground his teeth together.

  “Are you sure the stuff hasn’t just fallen out of sight?” Klane asked, finally, when it was apparent Hamilton was not going to answer.

  “I’ve checked my room over several times. It’s all gone. So is my laser range-finder. Someone sure knows what we’re doing.”

  “What about the rest of your gear?” she asked.

  “It’s still here,” he replied. “Though someone has gone through it. I advise you to check your weapons and equipment.”

  Hamilton and Klane exchanged glances. Hamilton was regaining his composure quickly.

  “What do you want me to do?” Jones inquired.

  “Get your gear and open the doors to Carl and Vogerian’s rooms. We’ll be down shortly.” Hamilton ordered.

  Klane was checking her equipment over, in particular, her combat scanner. Hamilton began to check his equipment. After going over his personal equipment he moved to his bag and weapon’s cases and checked the gear there.

  “Everything of mine seems OK.” Klane muttered.

  “Yeah,” Hamilton agreed. “Mine too.” He struggled with one of the weapon’s cases. “Here, can you make use of this?” He lifted the Assault System from the case.

  Klane’s eyes lit up. “Can I ever!” She accepted the massive weapon combination eagerly, hefting it experimentally.

  Though designed for use with power-assisted armour, Klane’s exceptional size, strength and artificial limbs allowed her to use the weapon, though it was still a little unwieldy. She accepted the ammunition clips that Hamilton proffered and inserted them into the weapon where appropriate.

  “You really know how to make a girl happy!” she exulted.

  “Since when were you ever a girl?” He grinned.

  She clapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s sort this mess out, once and for all!”

  “Right!” he agreed. “Let’s go. No point in monitoring the cameras, they’re unreliable, anyway.”

  She nodded and the pair left.

  Jones was still working on Carl’s door when they arrived. He had prised off several panels around the door and wires dangled from each, connected to a variety of devices strewn around the entrance.

  “How’s it going?” Hamilton asked.

  Jones scowled up at the pair. “Who’s watching the cameras?”

  “Nobody. They didn’t show the assassin, so there’s not much point in watching until we let the others out.” Hamilton explained. “Now, how’s it going?”

  “It’s going slowly.” he answered. “These doors aren’t the same as the rest. Carl and Vogerian must have headed straight for these cabins.”

  “Different in what way?” Klane demanded.

  “More difficult to open. Greater security. Nothing I can’t handle, you understand. It just might take a little bit of time.”

  “Do your best.” Klane said.

  Jones flashed a quick grin. “I always do.”

  The armoured pair waited whilst the security operative continued his work.

  “Almost there,” he muttered, fiddling with his instruments. “Got it!”

  The door slid open silently, revealing Carl’s cabin. Klane was first in, stepping over Jones’ gear. She halted just inside, gaping. Hamilton glanced around her side.

  Carl’s room was designed like any other, but there were weapons everywhere. Rifles, pistols, grenades and other military paraphernalia lay casually all around the small cabin.

  “Jones,” Hamilton said over his shoulder. “
Go find us a cart or several large sacks or something.”

  The black man peered past them both and whistled. “Looks like someone was getting ready for a war.”

  “I’m glad you used the past tense.” Hamilton said.

  “I’ll see what I can find.” Jones affirmed, moving off.

  Klane and Hamilton dragged the arsenal out into the central area and began to roll everything up in the sheets from Carl’s bunk. Jones had been unable to find anything better. He was now busy trying to open Vogerian’s door.

  Hamilton and Klane dragged the cache of weapons to the security room and secured it. Then they returned to find Jones just finishing his work on Vogerian’s door. It opened even as they approached.

  Looking in they saw nothing that would appear unusual. They entered and searched it. After fifteen minutes, they had to admit there was nothing suspicious in the room. They left, despondently.

  “Now what?” Jones demanded.

  “Back to the security room. A conference is in order. We’ve got to go through everything we’ve learned. Piece by piece.” Hamilton said.

  Jones nodded wearily, gathering up his tools and equipment. “I was afraid you’d say something like that.”

  “OK. Let’s get on with it.” Klane agreed.

  The trio went over everything they had learned. Afterwards, Hamilton paced back and forth, summarising their knowledge.

  “OK. So we know that Vogerian invited me along on this mission. We know that he bugged my room and that…”

  “Hold on a minute!” Jones interrupted. “We don’t know that it was Vogerian who had your room wired. It could have been someone else.”

  “Alright, I’ll rephrase that part.” Hamilton offered. “We know that someone bugged my room and we suspect that it was Vogerian. After all, he had the room arranged for me. So it was either him, or someone who knew him well.

  “We also know that there is someone on this ship that we don’t know about and can’t seem to find. This person has killed someone, apparently for no reason.”

  “Wait a minute!” Jones exclaimed suddenly. “I just remembered something!”

  “What?” Hamilton demanded.

  “I just thought of a motive.”

  “Well, spit it out!” Hamilton scowled.

  “It was when I was measuring the ship. Any number of people saw me, but nobody asked what I was doing. Only Smith. He came right up and asked me why I was measuring things. He is an engineer, after all. I suppose it was obvious to him what I was doing. I told him some rubbish about checking the distance to the escape pods from various parts of the ship so that it could be worked out how long it would take to get there in an emergency. He seemed to believe me, even offered to help. Sorry, I didn’t see the significance of it until just now.”

  “That’s OK.” Hamilton muttered. “What are you suggesting?”

  “Well, it seems to me that Smith must have mentioned it to someone else. That someone put two and two together and figured out what we were up to. I guess he stole the data and murdered Smith to keep his identity secret.”

  “Hmm, seems reasonable.” Klane agreed. “But who spoke to Smith?”

  “Could have been anyone.” Jones said, morosely.

  “Wait a moment!” Hamilton said, eyes lighting up. “Don’t our cameras make recordings?”

  Klane looked suddenly hopeful. “Yeah! They do! But it’s not a complete record. The recording is done from here, so we’ll only find what we would have seen normally.”

  “That should be enough.” Hamilton said. “Can you get it to run back?”

  “Sure. No problem.” she replied, heading for the controls. In minutes they were watching the footage winding back at high speed. They reached the portion of the recording just after Smith had been shot. Klane slowed the rewind speed down so that they could see what was happening. Smith’s body was seen lying in the corridor. Abruptly, it vanished, though the corridor remained. They watched the other screens. Smith appeared, walking backwards through the engineering section and into the corridor that led to the aft engineering section.

  Suddenly, the recording went blank on all screens.

  “What’s going on?” Hamilton demanded.

  “I don’t know,” Klane answered. “Just a minute.” She played the video forward until Smith reappeared then began to rewind it. Once again, all the images vanished.

  “Well?” Hamilton scowled.

  She shook her head angrily. “Damn! Someone’s erased it. I’ll see if it’s all gone.” she said, speeding up the rewind to maximum. The screen remained stubbornly blank.

  Hamilton stood back and angrily kicked the console. “That does it! I’ve had enough of this! I’m going to find out what’s going on here if I have to tear this ship apart bolt by bolt!”

  “Calm down!” Klane growled. “You’re not helping us any by losing it.”

  “I’m not losing it! I’m not!” Hamilton said, regaining some control over his wild features. He was breathing hard.

  “Just take it easy. Look on this as a challenge.” she said.

  Hamilton scowled. “It’s a challenge I could do without. I prefer a straight, easy-to-understand challenge.”

  “But that’s hardly a challenge.” she said. “In any case, I thought you were into this investigative stuff nowadays?”

  “I’m going off it rapidly.”

  “But think of the satisfaction when you solve the mystery.” Jones put in.

  Hamilton scowled again. “I feel the need to bust somebody’s head.”

  “Calm down. We’ll be OK.”

  Hamilton sighed. “I’m getting mighty sick of all this. If we don’t find out what’s going on soon, I’m gonna get angry.”

  “We’ve just got to play it cool for now.” Klane advised.

  “So what’s your idea of ‘cool’?” Jones said.

  “OK,” she began. “We interview everyone one at a time. We might find out something, or we might not. Once that’s accomplished, we confine them to their cabins. They only come out to eat and to perform their duties and we keep someone with them at all times. That should prevent any more deaths, at least. Then we carry on as normal. Jones will have to make another survey of the interior, but should be accompanied by someone else at all times. It doesn’t have to be one of us, either. How does that sound?”

  Jones shrugged noncommittally. Hamilton nodded thoughtfully. “Sounds reasonable. At least, as reasonable as we can get at this time. How many bugs have you got, Jones?”

  The black man considered for a moment. “About twenty, I guess. Why? What do you want to do with them?”

  “I think we should spread them about the ship. Maybe our uninvited guest won’t be able to avoid them as easily as he does the built-in monitors.”

  Klane nodded. “Sounds good. But where do we put them?”

  Hamilton rubbed his chin. “OK. The bridge, engineering, one in each lab, hangar decks, cargo deck, medical lab, here, rec and mess areas, and the rest amongst various cabins.”

  “They’re not very sensitive.” Jones said. “They might not be able to cover all of the larger areas like the cargo deck.”

  Hamilton shrugged. “We’ll place them to cover the entrances. I think we should do that now, so that you can rig up some kind of monitor system in here.”

  Jones nodded. “No problem. It’ll take about an hour to set up the monitor, plus another hour for placement.”

  “OK. Klane, you go with him for protection. I’ll check on our good doctor and see how things are going there.”

  “Roger.” Klane acknowledged, standing. She and Jones left to get his gear.

  Hamilton remained in the room for about ten or fifteen minutes, listening as Jones and Klane began to place the listening devices in the cabins of various members of the crew. They bugged Vogerian’s, Carl’s, Lewis’, LeGault’s, Dyzwiecki’s, Simmonds’, O’Won’s and Walsh’s cabins.

  Hamilton then called in on the doctor, and almost wished he hadn’t.

/>   The doctor and his assistant were in the middle of their autopsy and the sight of Smith’s cut-open body made even Hamilton blanche. He was used to death, having seen much in his life. But there was something horrific and terrifying about watching the doctor slice open Smith’s corpse and extract a handful of internal organs. Compared to the sudden, unpredictable death that Hamilton was accustomed to, it was, somehow, obscene. A few hours ago this lump of sliced open meat had been a human being. He forced himself to remain for a few minutes, asking all sorts of questions. The doctor replied in weary tones.

  Smith had died of a bullet wound. Hamilton already knew that. Smith had been in fairly good health before his accident, though Dyzwiecki couldn’t comment on the state of his heart as it had been destroyed by the projectile. However, his arteries were free of deposits, indicating a strong heart and balanced diet. Various other organs were being examined as Hamilton waited, but the doc’ expected nothing unusual in the results. Some small fragments of the slug that had killed him were discovered. They were handed over to Hamilton, who examined them with a critical eye.

  They were mostly leaden fragments, which was to be expected, though Hamilton discerned one or two small pieces of copper amongst them. That did not surprise him overly. Copper-jacketed slugs were not uncommon, being more effective at punching through body armour, whilst retaining their powerful concussive ability. Given that it was a jacketed slug, Hamilton was mildly surprised to find so few fragments of copper. On the other hand, he recalled, Smith had been shot from close range and was wearing no armour. The jacket had probably separated from the body of the round and passed straight through Smith to embed itself in the wall. Hamilton made a note to dig it out before too long.

  He thanked the doctor and bade him continue his work, then he left.

  Hamilton returned to the security chamber and checked on the progress of Jones and Klane. They were currently in the rec area, continuing their bugging. The occupants of the lab had formed into small groups and sat around discussing what was going on in hushed tones. Hamilton noted that Johnson, along with many of the others, were quite upset and frightened by what was going on. He reminded himself that most of them were civilians and completely unused to such situations. He made a note of those who didn’t appear concerned and decided to ask them during their interview why they weren’t worried about what was going on.