Chasing the Stars (22 page)

Anjuli and I in particular were already good friends. Her enthusiasm was endearing. If she could’ve, she would’ve slept on the bridge. She insisted that Aidan and I take her through every facet of the ship’s controls, which I for one was more than happy to do. And she was no mental slouch either. In fact, I got on well with almost everyone – except Darren. And Erica. She got on most of my nerves, with her openly knowing looks cast in my direction, and especially her obvious plays for my brother. The atmosphere on board was slowly beginning to relax and warm up as we got used to each other. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy about it – but it felt like the calm before a fast approaching storm.

I could only hope and pray that I was worrying about nothing.

And then there was Mei, Saul and Jaxon. I hadn’t forgotten what had happened to them, even if our investigation seemed to have ground to a halt. Realizing that I hadn’t had a proper chat with my brother in a number of days, I headed for his door about thirty minutes before the start of my next shift. Placing my hand against his palmlock, I walked straight into his room. Aidan was seated at his desk. He swung round in his chair the moment I entered.

‘Hi, Aidan, how’re you?’ I smiled.

He gave me a strange look, almost stony.

‘Are you all right?’ I asked, my smile fading.

‘I haven’t seen you in a while,’ said Aidan.

‘Yeah, I know. I’ve been . . . er . . . busy getting to know our new crew,’ I mumbled.

‘The whole crew or just one member of it?’ he asked.

My face began to burn. ‘What does that mean?’

‘You and Nathan are together a lot,’ said Aidan.

‘Nathan has been telling me about the other members of the crew and teaching me things.’

‘Like what?’

‘Like what life was like on Callisto and how he survived,’ I replied, my tone growing brusque. This wasn’t what I came to talk to my brother about. Time to nip this subject in the bud. I took a deep breath. ‘Aidan, I didn’t come here to talk about Nathan. How is the investigation going into the deaths of Jaxon, Saul and Mei?’

At first I thought he wasn’t going to answer, but at last he said, ‘I’ve analysed all the available logs and cross-referenced the time of the nanite infection with the times of the deaths of the refugees.’

‘And?’

Aidan shrugged. ‘Any or all of the new crew could’ve done it.’

Distinctly unimpressed, I narrowed my eyes. ‘All that brain power and that’s the best you can do?’

‘Let’s hear your conclusions then,’ Aidan challenged.

Silence.

‘They’re the same as yours,’ I admitted. ‘The person who infected our computer system was really smart to do it in a place which everyone uses and has access to. I don’t believe it’s a conspiracy though. This smells to me like one person acting alone.’

‘Well, the only way to track down this person is to wait for them to strike again,’ said my brother.

‘And if they don’t?’

‘Then they’ll probably get away with the murders of three people,’ said Aidan.

‘And if they do strike again?’

‘Then more people on board this ship will die.’

The
Aidan
was in night-time mode and I was on the bridge instead of the cargo hold where I should be. Guess I had it really bad. I just didn’t like to be away from Vee for too long. Every couple of hours or so, I always found an excuse to come up to the bridge, supposedly to see Mum. But from the way Vee tried to hide her amused smile every time I walked on the bridge, she knew exactly why I was here.

Sad, but true.

I was addicted to her. More than addicted.

I loved the idea of the two of us spending more time getting to know each other. As far as I was concerned, a lifetime wouldn’t be long enough.

So here I was again, asking my mum some inane question that could’ve waited until we were both off duty just so I could be with Vee. Even if neither of us said a single word to each other, at least I got to see her for a few minutes. That would have to do me until the two of us could be alone together again.

Anjuli sat in Aidan’s seat at the navigation controls next to Mum with Darren at weapons and Sam and Hedda at the tactical panel. I was glad there’d been no more talk of Mum trying to take over Vee’s ship. I still heard mutterings amongst some of the settlers about an eighteen-year-old running things and giving orders, but Mum always backed her up and Vee obviously knew what she was doing, so though the mutterings didn’t disappear, they didn’t get any louder – at least, not around me. Between Vee and Mum, they pretty much had the running of the ship covered.

The day after the memorial service, Mum suggested to Vee that they run tactical simulations. Vee took only a moment to consider before agreeing.

‘Would you like to run them yourself or are you happy for me to handle that?’ asked Mum.

‘You go ahead. I’d like to be involved though,’ said Vee.

So over the next couple of days, they devised different scenarios and ran test alerts to see how the new crew of the
Aidan
would manage. The first couple were close to disastrous but we were getting better.

I was so proud of Vee. She wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty and she ate at the same tables as the rest of us in the mess hall. Unlike some of the commanders and captains I’d come across before Mum and I were exiled to Callisto, Vee wasn’t standoffish and unsociable, thinking she was too good for anyone who wasn’t of the same rank.

Aidan was a different story. After the first few days of sitting with us but not saying a word, he’d taken to chipping into our conversations with comments whenever he got the chance. The trouble was that most of his comments missed the mark or were inappropriate. He was trying too hard. And more than once I caught him watching me. No, not just watching me,
scrutinizing
me. Whenever I tried to smile at him to be friendly, he just continued to stare. Well, if that’s the way he wanted it then that was his business. But the staring was unnerving, verging on creepy.

The ship was still on yellow alert and Vee said there it would stay until we were out of Mazon territory. No one was going to fully relax until we reached the wormhole that would take us out of Mazon space.

So here we were, only a few days away from leaving Mazon territory for good and I was actually daring to believe that luck might actually be on our side for a change.

‘Nathan, when you’ve finished staring at Vee like she’s suddenly sprouted an extra head, perhaps you’d like to tell me what you’re doing on the bridge?’ said Mum.

Damn! I needed to be more careful. I didn’t realize I was staring.

‘Mum, I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner with me in the mess hall some night soon?’ I said to her as she looked at me expectantly.

Pathetic! That didn’t even convince me!

‘And you needed to ask me that at this precise moment?’ said Mum drily. ‘It couldn’t have waited?’

Behind me, Vee cleared her throat, but when I looked at her she was avidly studying something on the panel which made up one arm of her chair. Everything on there could also be called up as an image before her by manipulating the two command bracelets she wore on either wrist. With the slightest subtle hand or wrist movement she could display information from any panel on the bridge. She had very clever wrists. And hands. And—

‘Er . . . Nathan, I’m over here. I thought you came to see me? It’s interesting just how many times a day you come up here to see me about this or that, none of which is really important,’ Mum continued, looking from me to Vee and back again. ‘I’m beginning to wonder—’

The ship’s alarm began to scream. Any relief I felt at being saved by the siren was short-lived when I realized what the siren meant. The lights on the bridge kept flashing red.

‘Aidan, get in here,’ Vee called out. ‘And shut off the siren.’

A metal harness came over the back of the captain’s chair, pressing down on Vee’s shoulders and clicking into place around her waist.

‘What’s going on?’ Mum asked as she secured herself into her seat as did everyone else around me.

Vee studied her monitor. ‘We’ve got company,’ she said grimly.

The Mazon.

I ran to the environmental station and sat in the first available seat, securing myself in too. Aidan raced into the room. Anjuli got to her feet, looking shocked and ashen as Aidan sat in the chair she’d just vacated.

‘I didn’t . . . I didn’t mean . . .’ Anjuli wasn’t making any sense.

‘Aidan, report,’ Vee ordered.

Aidan studied his console for a moment, before his body stilled momentarily.

‘A Mazon patrol ship has locked onto our signal and is heading our way at speed,’ he said.

‘How the hell did it manage to lock onto us?’ said Vee. ‘We’re still scrambling our engine energy signature – right?’

‘We
were
,’ Aidan said pointedly.

‘I’m so sorry—’ Anjuli’s apology was a horrified whisper.

What had she done?

‘Anjuli sent the Mazon ship a signal from my panel. She’s alerted them to our presence,’ said Aidan. ‘Vee, we’re in big trouble.’

I must’ve misheard. ‘What?’

‘Anjuli sent the Mazon a signal,’ said Aidan.

Dahell? Much as I might want to leap across the bridge and kick Anjuli’s butt, I had higher priorities at that moment. But what the hell was she thinking?

‘Can we scramble our signal to lose them again?’ I asked my brother.

‘Not this time, sis. They’ll know what to look out for now. And besides the Mazon ship is closing in at maximum speed.’

‘How long before it reaches us?’

‘At its current speed, fifteen minutes.’

‘The closest star system?’

‘Over a day away,’ Aidan replied.

‘It’s just the one Mazon ship?’ I asked.

‘So far.’

‘One of the ones we encountered before?’

‘I can’t tell from this distance. I don’t see what difference it makes. Whichever Mazon cruiser it is, when it fires at us, we’ll be just as dead,’ said Aidan. ‘Anjuli, what were you doing? Why would you want to get us all killed?’

All eyes were on Anjuli. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she struggled to speak. ‘I w-was just trying to monitor their communications,’ she stammered. ‘I wanted to find out if there were any other Mazon ships between us and the wormhole. I wanted to help. Tell them, Aidan.’

‘Never mind that now,’ I said.

Accusations and explanations would have to wait.

‘Vee, long-range sensors indicate another three Mazon battle cruisers eighteen hours away and heading in our direction,’ said Aidan.

‘When the Mazon patrol vessel reaches us, I could try a phased-shift electron burst,’ said Darren from the weapons station.

‘That would only work if we hit their engine core straight on. With all the shielding the Mazon have around their engine, we wouldn’t do enough damage to tickle them, never mind disable them,’ I replied tersely.

‘Nathan, get over here,’ said the commander. ‘We need you at navigation.’

‘We do?’ said Aidan.

‘My son can fly this ship or any other Earth vessel ever made. Plus he’s studied the schematics of every alien ship Earth has ever had contact with,’ Catherine replied. ‘He was not only the best flight pilot on board my last ship but he also knows every bolt and rivet of every ship he’s ever studied.’

Nathan had told me that his mum had no idea of the full extent of his knowledge or interest in star craft. Looks like he got that one wrong. She sounded pretty savvy to me. I heard the sound of Nathan’s safety harness being uncoupled. He went over to the navigation board and sat at the panel between his mum and Aidan. I wasn’t about to argue. The monitor before Nathan immediately had his attention. Anjuli moved over to Nathan’s vacated seat at environmental.

‘Anjuli, don’t touch anything,’ I ordered. ‘D’you hear me? Not a damned thing.’

Anjuli nodded. I turned back to Nathan. If the worse came to the worse, at least I’d get to look at him one last time before—

No! Don’t think like that, Vee. You have too much to live for now. Figure something out.

Think, damn it. Think.

Nathan turned in his chair to look at me. I thought he might say something but he didn’t. He just looked at me and then turned away. Did my expression mirror his – grim and resigned? So much for all the time Nathan said we’d have to get to know each other. So much for the lifetime he’d promised me where we’d explore the universe together.