“I’m game, if you are,” said Josh. Keith bowed his head, and Josh swallowed a mouthful of the vile smelling liquid. “It tastes just like it smells.” He handed the bottle to Keith who also took a gulp.
They leaned back against the closet wall, closed their eyes and waited for the effects of the medicine to kick in.
Still with his eyes closed, Josh said out loud. “I am impressed that you were able to follow my lead and pretend to pass out.”
“I was hoping that is what you wanted me to do, sir. If I was wrong, you would have thought I was copping out,” answered Keith.
“No, I would not have thought that. I know that it is not in you to take the easy way out.” Josh looked at Keith and even in the dim lit closet he could see his face go red.
“Keith, exactly what did you tell General Platt?” asked Josh.
Keith had wondered when that question was going to come up. He worked out in his head how he was going to respond, but now that the question was actually asked, he couldn’t recall what he had planned to say. “Sir, I really tried not to say anything, but Beverly was being tortured and well, I guess I lost it. I am really sorry.” The shame that Keith felt was quite apparent. “I told the General that we were exploring Brisula’s suitability for human life, so that we could build a holiday recreation resort.”
“Is that really what you told him?” gasped Josh.
“Yes, sir,” Keith said almost in a whisper.
“You didn’t tell him about the drug research facility?”
“No, sir. I tried to think of another reason we could be exploring Brisula and the idea of a resort popped into my head.”
“Keith, I am quite proud of you. To be perfectly honest I was having a difficult time thinking that you had betrayed our mission. I am so relieved to know that you are not our informant.”
“But, I thought you said that UGC had determined that someone from the landing party had leaked the information. I assumed that I was the one.”
“UGC reported that the Tradians knew we were exploring the planet for a drug research center. The Tradians did not know what drug we were going to be testing. You, of course, had that information and could have leaked it out.”
“If the information didn’t come from me, then who did it come from?” asked Keith.
“That is an excellent question,” remarked Josh. He closed his eyes again and leaned back against the wall.
“Good morning everyone,” greeted Dave Andrews. They were all back in the Conference Room to begin another day of strategizing. “Has there been anything new since we adjourned a few hours ago?”
Jackson Greene raised his hand. “I checked the application that I had developed to monitor the loudspeaker transmissions. There was a new interception that came in early this morning. I would like to play it, so everyone can hear it.” Jackson picked up a small recording device and pressed down on a button. A very loud voice screamed through the recorder’s speaker.
“ATTENTION ALL GUARDS. TWO MALE SLAVES HAVE ESCAPED FROM PUNISHMENT CENTER C-9. REPEAT, TWO MALE SLAVES HAVE ESCAPED.”
Several eyebrows went up on the faces of those around the table.
“Do you think Josh is one the of slaves who escaped?” asked Paul Loring.
“That is a very strong possibility,” answered Andrews. “If the Captain was captured and placed in a slave colony he would do everything possible to devise an escape plan. Most likely the other male is Keith Hampton or Wayne Shasta.”
“So what do we do next?” demanded Dennis Pearson. It seemed like his anger had not abated overnight. Actually Dennis had slept very little. Maybe an hour. After visiting Diane he sat in their quarters staring into blank space. By the time he crawled into bed and closed his eyes the alarm went off.
“That is what I would like us to work on this morning,” stated Andrews. “I suggest we start by—” He was cut off by the buzz of his satellite phone. “Andrews,” he snapped when he flipped open the phone. He listened for several seconds. “Yes. That will be fine,” he said into the phone. He closed the phone and addressed the committee. “Lieutenant Pearson said that she had some new information that she wanted to share with us. She will be here shortly.”
They drank coffee and chewed on bagels waiting for Diane Pearson to arrive. No one seemed quite ready to tackle Dave’s agenda. They welcomed the opportunity to stall for a while until they could formulate their thoughts.
Lieutenant Pearson entered the Conference Room accompanied by Benjamin Rubin. Diane looked weathered. The past week had been tough on her. Grey circles were under her eyes. Her usual silky red hair was limp and unkempt. She looked very nervous.
“Please have a seat,” instructed Dave. Diane and Ben sat down around the table. Ben was carrying a sheath of papers. Amanda Rugan poured them both a cup of coffee. Once they had a chance to drink some of their coffee, Andrews asked them to proceed with their report.
“Sir,” began Lieutenant Pearson addressing Commander Andrews, “please keep in mind that I was in the Brig all night and thereby I had no access to a computer.” She paused briefly to gather her courage. “I checked the user log again on the communications computer when I went on duty about an hour ago. The log showed that there were four messages sent overnight, one to General Platt by Diane Pearson and three unidentified users.”
“Why would the log indicate that the users were unidentified?” Andrews asked.
“I do not know, sir,” said Diane. “It could be one user who logged in four times or four different users. I suspect it was one user.”
“Why is that?”
“Well, whoever used the computer was sloppy and left copies of the outgoing messages in the sent folder. I’ve printed out copies of the four messages.” Diane handed the stack of papers to Andrews. He took his copies and passed the rest to Paul Loring sitting to his right.
“Please read them out loud, Lieutenant.”
Diane began reading.
June 2, 0300 hours
To: General Platt
Beware. U.S.S. Gladiator plans to send divers down to explore the lake.
DP
--------
June 2, 0400 hours
To: UGC
Commander Andrews is proposing to dispatch divers to explore lake.
PL
--------
June 2, 0500 hours
To: UGC
Attempts to locate the Captain are futile. Suggest that we abandon further search plans.
DA
--------
June 2, 0600 hours
To: UGC
Commander Dave Andrews has decided to ignore orders against searching the lake.
DP
“Is this a joke?” asked Paul. “If it is, it is not very funny.”
“Lieutenant, are you sure these are real outgoing messages?” inquired Andrews.
“Yes, sir,” answered Diane. She held her hands under the table as she couldn’t control the shaking. She couldn’t believe how nervous she was.
Dennis Pearson jumped up. “Hey, Andrews,” he said with contempt in his voice. “are you going to lock up Dr. Loring and yourself?” He remained standing with his hands on his hips.
Andrews ignored Pearson. He again addressed Diane. “You forwarded a confidential message to me this morning. Did you read it before sending it to me?”
“No, sir. I did not open it.”
“Did you also forward it to Dennis?”
“No, sir.”
“The message I got this morning was from UGC, ordering me to cease all plans to explore the Brisula Lake,” Andrews told everyone.
“Well, you need to do something about this,” demanded Dennis impatiently.
Still ignoring Dennis Pearson, Andrews told the group that he needed some time to contemplate these latest messages. They would reconvene in two hours.
Josh Stoner woke up and for a minute he forgot where he was. Oh, he was still in the medical supply closet. Keith Hampton was asleep next to him. After tr
ying to stretch his legs and arms, he lightly shook Hampton. Keith woke with a start. Apparently he too forgot where he was.
“Good morning, Lieutenant,” he said smiling. It had been a while since he had anything to smile about. They may be hiding in a supply cabinet, but they were still free. They had made it through the night without being caught. “Well, we need to get out of here. I don’t think we should remain too long in one place.”
“Yes, sir,” answered Keith. He was stiff and his neck hurt from leaning against the wall for the last few hours. In a way he wished he was still back in the cage with his arms around Beverly. Would he ever see her again? Actually, he had really slept well. For the first time in almost three weeks he did not dream about being on trial for treason. Captain Stoner had said he was proud of him and that he wasn’t the informant.
“The problem is,” Josh was saying, “I’m not sure how we should proceed. When I hatched this plan I had forgotten about the blue gas.”
“When you hatched the plan, sir?” asked Keith. “Do you mean—” He stopped and stared at the Captain. “I am so sorry, sir. I should have known.”
“Well, actually I was hoping that you didn’t know. It was more real that way.”
“But, I hit you.”
“Yes and I hit you. It was exactly as I planned.” Josh grinned. “Except, I didn’t know you had such a powerful left jab.”
“I am so sorry, sir.”
“You don’t need to be. You reacted precisely as I wanted you to.”
“I have been so worried that if we get rescued I would be facing charges of treason and insubordination.” Keith felt his face turning red again.
Josh shook his head. “It’s not if we get rescued, it’s when we get rescued.” He put a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “You have nothing to worry about. I am quite impressed with the way you have been handling this whole disaster.” He gave Keith a smile.
Keith smiled back. All of a sudden it felt like the weight of the whole world was lifted off his shoulders. “So, what do we do next? Keep heading west?”
“Um, yes. But I’m afraid I didn’t really think this through. The tunnels are flooded with some sort of blue gas. I would assume that it’s meant to take us out.”
“Do we need to find gas masks?” Keith asked.
“Maybe.” Something about the gas had been bothering Josh and suddenly it came to him. “When Wayne and I entered the tunnels, the blue gas was released. The guards were in the blue mist also. They were not wearing gas masks or coveralls. But they were wearing sunglasses. I wonder if we just keep our eyes closed, the gas won’t affect us.”
Josh opened the closet door. The lab was still dark. Before leaving they found some canvas shopping bags lying on the very top closet shelf. Using a roll of gauze they were able to tie the sacks around their waists. In the sacks they placed some supplies from the cabinet that they thought might come in handy; scissors, bandages, two rolls of gauze, bandage tape, peroxide, and the bottle of Energy Booster.
They walked past Dave Andrews’ body and peeked out the small window. The corridor was empty. There was still blue gas lingering in the air. Keith and Josh lifted their shirts over their shoulders and down around their faces. They tiptoed out of the medical lab and went west, trailing the smooth silver walls with their fingers.
He sat in the dark looking down at his hands. Everything was going wrong. How could he have managed to let things get so out of control? Would Josh Stoner have let things get so bad? Dave had always thought that if some day he was called upon to be the captain of his own spaceship, he would do so with the utmost efficiency. Now his confidence was wavering. Pull yourself together, he admonished himself. Take back control. But how?
He hated to admit it, but, for the second time, Dennis Pearson was right. The first time was when he stopped the search party from going down to the planet’s surface. That would have created even a bigger mess if more of the crew was captured. Now Pearson was right again. They should be concentrating more on trying to locate the informant. He or she probably had all the answers they needed including the location of Captain Stoner. With that in mind Dave began thinking about the series of transmissions. The original one was sent to UGC without anyone’s knowledge. The first one he found was quite embedded in Diane’s personal computer. He had only been able to find some fragments. The next one was found in the communications system’s computer. It was embedded but easy to find. Was DP the traitor’s real initials, or was the spy’s motive to mislead the Gladiator crew? Dave pulled on his hair as if trying to tug the answers out of his brain. The spy had a lot of privileged information. That meant he or she was on the rescue committee or had an accomplice on the team. Or the spy could be hacking into confidential computer files.
He stood up and went over to his computer station. Sitting down on the rolling office chair he flipped the switch that brought his computer to life. He was a pretty good hacker himself. If he could hack into the personnel files conceivably he could find some clues to the spy’s identity.
Ensign Rubin and Diane Pearson returned to the Bridge. They were busy analyzing the newest loudspeaker broadcast that Jackson Greene had intercepted. They were running the same tests that they had ran on the previous interceptions. The Bridge was otherwise quite tranquil. Ensign Saad was at the helm and as usual Bonnie Shea was seated alongside him.
The Bridge elevator door slid open, and Lieutenant Commander Dennis Pearson sauntered onto the Bridge. Diane looked up, and she and Dennis made eye contact. They exchanged slight nods before quickly looking away from each other.
“Good morning everyone,” announced Dennis as he slipped into the Captain’s chair. He thought about the events that had just occurred in the Conference Room. Maybe now Andrews will see that they needed to expose the traitor. I never imagined that Andrews could be so incompetent. Now more than ever, the Gladiator needed a strong and confident leader. Unfortunately Andrews did not seem capable. To be fair, they were in a precarious situation, and Andrews was getting pressure from UGC.
Dennis turned his head and looked over at Diane. How I wish this nightmare would be over, so I can scoop Diane up in my arms and carry her off to our bed.
Diane was fast at work and didn’t notice that Dennis was watching her. Her thoughts were on the last four transmissions. Those transmissions had been easy to find. They were not embedded as the previous ones were. In addition all of a sudden initials were appearing. Was the spy getting sloppy as she had mentioned in the conference room, or was he or she planting messages that were meant to be found? She was still feeling anxious. Her hands had finally stopped shaking. Approaching Dave Andrews with those new transmissions had unhinged her. She still had trouble accepting that Andrews had actually had her locked up and labeled a traitor. How could he suspect her? And how come he didn’t say anything about me being one of the computer users last night? Maybe he’s the spy, she thought laughing out loud.
“Have you discovered something funny, Lieutenant?” asked Dennis. He was still watching her. He observed that her cheeks were a bright pink. He smiled at her.
“No, sir,” she answered. “I just had a funny thought.”
“Care to share?” he asked.
“I was just thinking, what if Dave Andrews is a spy?” Bonnie Shea swirled around to face Diane. Ensign Saad stopped what he was doing and stared at Diane.
“That may not be so funny,” said Dennis.
“What?” exclaimed Bonnie.
Dennis turned to look at Bonnie. She looked stunned. The last thing they needed was panic among the crew. The fact that there was a traitor aboard ship had not been shared with crew members outside of the group working with Andrews.
Dennis forced a small laugh. “Just kidding.” He got up from the Captain’s chair. He gave Diane a wink and headed off the Bridge.
Paul Loring slammed the door loudly as he entered the medical office in Sick Bay. He turned the lock, so that the door could only be opened from the inside. He needed to be alo
ne. Things were getting so complicated. These last three transmissions to UGC were disturbing. Who had sent them? Was it one person? Surely there couldn’t be more than one informant among the crew? But why all of a sudden would there be four messages sent with three sets of initials? PL are obviously my initials, he thought. But I didn’t send that message. DA. Dave Andrews. Was Dave really manipulating the situation to his advantage? Would Dave risk the Captain’s life for his own gain? That hardly seemed likely but, of course, anything was possible. There were only six spaceship captain positions in UGC, and it was no secret that Andrews desired to have a ship of his own. DP. Either Diane or Dennis Pearson. Between those two Dennis seemed a more probable suspect. It was common knowledge that Dennis did not like Andrews. Was Dennis trying to ensure that Andrews would not gain control of the ship in the event that the Captain was not rescued? Were these four messages actually from an informant, or were they meant to cause confusion and point the committee away from outing the real informant?
There was a knock on the door. At first Paul ignored it. He didn’t want to be disturbed. There was too much to think about. He couldn’t stand it when everything was out of order. He functioned better when things were logical and made sense. There was another knock on the door, and still Paul ignored it. He needed more time to think about all of this. The knocks become more persistent. Finally Paul unlocked the door and pulled it open. Amanda Rugan stood on the other side of the door. She looked both perplexed and irritated.
“What is it?” he grumbled. “I do not like to be disturbed when my door is closed.”
Now Amanda was hurt. She could not ever recall Dr. Loring being so cross with her.
“I am sorry for bothering you, Dr. Loring, but there is a crew member who tripped and twisted her ankle. It is swollen. I needed to know if you wanted to perform a Bio-Scan?”
“Oh,” said Paul. “Prepare the patient for the scan. I will be right there.” He went back into his office and closed the door. Settle down, he told himself. I need to put all these questions aside. I am the chief medical officer and that comes with responsibilities. He shut down his computer and locked the door from the outside. He walked over to the triage section where Amanda Rugan was tending to the officer with a twisted ankle. It was Bonnie Shea.
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