Chasing the Stars (32 page)

‘There’s no other explanation, Vee,’ said Nathan. ‘And what’s more, I think I was meant to be one of the intended victims.’

Vee’s mouth dropped open, her face horrified. Her expression had to be the mirror image of mine when I first realized.

‘Please tell me you’re joking,’ she whispered.

‘It’s not something I would joke about,’ I replied.

Vee stumbled over to the bed and sat down. I sat down beside her, taking her hands in mine. Vee looked me in the eyes and I could read every emotion as it crossed her face – disbelief, fury, fear.

‘Tell me why you think you were the intended target,’ she said at last.

‘Darren assigned me the task of re-shielding the cabling alongside Corbyn in one of the starboard conduits. He entered the assignment into the computer but then the coolant alarm went off and he reassigned me to fix that instead. Only I don’t think Darren got the chance to enter the new assignment into the computer.’

‘So . . . the computer had you down as working in one of the conduits that got flooded with plasma energy.’ Vee picked her way through the words.

I nodded.

‘It has to be a coincidence. I mean, who in the galaxy would want to harm you?’

Aidan.

I decided to keep that thought to myself.

‘Who on board has the technical knowledge to do something like that?’ asked Vee.

Aidan.

I couldn’t and wouldn’t share my suspicions with Vee, not until I had titanium-clad proof.

‘That’s the same question Anjuli and I were discussing,’ I sighed. ‘The list is short. Eight people – Hedda and Sam, who work on the bridge, my mum, me, Anjuli, Darren, Doctor Liana and Mike.’

‘Well, it’s obviously not you,’ Vee said. ‘And I think we can cross your mum and the doctor off the list.’

‘And Anjuli,’ I added. ‘And I doubt if it’s Mike.’

‘The list of suspects is going to be non-existent if we carry on like this,’ said Vee.

‘Yeah,’ I sighed. ‘Quite frankly, I can’t believe it’s any of them.’

‘Darren?’ Vee suggested.

‘He’s capable but this isn’t really his style,’ I replied. ‘Besides, he’s the one who reassigned me so I wouldn’t have to work in the conduit – remember?’

Vee wrapped her arms around my waist, her head against my shoulder. We sat in silence for a few moments as it sunk in that someone had tried to kill me. It wasn’t a pleasant thing to contemplate. Surely I hadn’t pissed off anyone enough for them to want to see me dead? The evidence unfortunately said otherwise.

‘Tell me everything you know about those eight people,’ Vee asked. ‘Then tell me everything you know about all the ones who have died whilst on board this ship.’

I could see where she was going with this but I doubted it would do much good. Still, Vee might see something that Anjuli and I had missed.

I could only hope.

The overhead lights were on their dimmest setting, casting subdued amber throughout the room. I lay in bed on my back staring up at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Nathan wasn’t having the same problem. He lay on his side, his arm around my waist and he was dead to the world.

Inappropriate phrase.

I’d seen enough of death to last me five lifetimes. I was so weary of it. And now someone was out to get Nathan. I glanced at him whilst he slept. He looked so peaceful, almost boyish. Why would anyone want to harm him? Was it because he’d gone through the joining ceremony with me? It was ironic that the refugees I’d picked up from Barros 5 considered me part of the Authority, an elite, yet amongst this group I was the one on the outside. Because they saw me as part of the Authority, I knew that some of the crew still didn’t trust me. I had hoped that over time as they got to know me, they’d come to realize I was on their side. These so-called accidents had made the task that much harder. And if Nathan stuck with me, how soon before he lost his friends because of it?

Or worse still, lost his life?

Quite frankly, I envied Nathan his ability to sleep. The wheels were spinning in my head. It rankled that some of Nathan’s friends and colleagues thought that I might have had something to do with what happened in the engine room.

Like I would
ever
harm Nathan.

I had to admit, it’d hurt when I found out he’d been with Anjuli trying to figure out what had happened. Wasn’t that the sort of thing the two of us should do together? I understood what he’d said about keeping me out of it so as not to be accused of manufacturing any data or evidence that might prove my innocence, but to be honest that didn’t help.

I’d just have to find a way to accept that Nathan and Anjuli were good friends and probably always would be. I had to find a way to be cool with that. Besides, he’d joined with me, not her. That was the one fact I needed to cling onto whenever I got twitchy about Nathan’s and Anjuli’s relationship. This was my problem to solve, not Nathan’s. I could wish that my brother had kept his mouth shut about Erica’s suspicions. Those words were like slow poison that had been dripped into my ears.

Slowly the hours ticked by and still I couldn’t sleep. Sometime in the night, Nathan had turned away and was now lying with his back to me. In the end I just stopped fighting it and decided to start my shift on the bridge an hour earlier than scheduled. Staring at the ceiling was serving no purpose at all.

I slipped out of bed, had a quick shower and was getting dressed in my work uniform when Nathan woke up.

‘W-what’re you doing?’ he asked drowsily.

‘Going to the bridge,’ I replied.

Nathan checked the wall clock. ‘Our shift doesn’t start for another hour.’

‘I can’t sleep.’ My tone was terse. I wasn’t in a chatty mood.

‘Wait for me to have a shower and get dressed and I’ll come with you.’ Nathan threw back the covers and swung his legs out of the bed. He started to take off his pendant.

‘I’ll see you in there then. I have a few things to take care of that can’t wait,’ I replied, already heading for the door.

‘Vee . . .’

At that moment the door alarm sounded.

‘Who the hell is that at this time of the morning?’ Nathan grumbled.

I waited for him to slip on his shorts, before opening the door. It was Erica and her expression was stiff to say the least.

‘Nihao, Erica. Can I help you?’

‘Hello, Vee. I was hoping to speak to Nathan,’ she said formally. ‘In private.’

Erica and I hadn’t exactly been best friends since our first altercation but now the air between us was distinctly more frosty. She definitely thought I had something to do with all the accidents on board the
Aidan
.

‘What d’you want, Erica?’ Nathan’s tone wasn’t much warmer than Erica’s as he addressed her.

Erica moved past me, needing no further invitation. I turned to Nathan. ‘I’ll see you on the bridge,’ I said, happy to leave them to it.

I crossed the corridor to Aidan’s room, placing my hand against the palmlock. To my surprise, the door didn’t immediately open. I pressed on his door alert. I had no right to feel aggrieved – after all, I’d told my brother that he couldn’t just swan into my quarters whenever he liked. He’d obviously decided privacy should be a two-way street.

Aidan’s door hissed open and he stood at the entrance blocking my way.

‘May I come in?’ I asked when it became clear he wasn’t going to move.

Almost reluctantly, he stepped to one side and allowed me to enter his quarters. I crossed the room to sit on his bed. He remained standing.

‘Aidan, it feels like we haven’t had a proper conversation in a while.’

‘That’s because we haven’t,’ said Aidan.

My fault, I knew. I’d been a bit caught up in my new life with Nathan.

‘How are you?’ I asked.

‘Fine,’ Aidan replied curtly.

Well, my brother wasn’t making this easy for me.

‘Why are you here, Vee?’

‘I wanted to talk to you about the . . . accident in the engine room yesterday.’

‘Accident?’ Aidan said pointedly.

‘That’s what the commander and I are officially calling it,’ I said.

‘I’ve got news for you, Vee. Everyone knows that what happened yesterday and what happened to Mei, Jaxon and Saul in the airlock weren’t accidents,’ said Aidan.

‘How did they learn that?’ I asked, dismayed.

‘Vee, get real. We were never going to be able to hide that fact for long.’ Aidan sat down beside me on the bed.

‘But nothing has been officially confirmed by the commander or me,’ I protested.

‘Nothing has been denied either. The rumours are rife.’

I slumped back onto Aidan’s bed. I had hoped that by the time the majority of the crew found out the truth, we’d also have answers for them. I dreaded to think what this was going to do to crew morale.

I sat up again. ‘Aidan, is there anything you can tell me about who’s responsible for these deaths?’

Aidan shook his head. ‘The nanites were programmed to activate the plasma arcs and the order came from every control panel on board simultaneously.’

‘That’s impossible.’

‘Nevertheless, that’s how the computer recorded it – as coming from each command panel at once.’

‘Maybe the command came from the original panel a millisecond before all the others?’ I said hopefully. If so, then at least we could pin down the original command panel used and crosscheck it against who was using it at the time.

‘Sorry, Vee, I already thought of that. When I say simultaneous, that’s what I mean.’

I sighed. ‘So what you’re telling me is we’ve had two more deaths and we’re no closer to catching the culprit?’

‘In a word of one syllable – yes,’ said Aidan. He regarded me. ‘Still glad the refugees came on board, sis?
’

Today wasn’t shaping up to be any better than yesterday. I’d arrived on the bridge thirty minutes before my watch was due to start and Mum had still sent me back down to the engine room. We’d barely said a word to each other that wasn’t work-related in two days.

Thankfully, Darren hadn’t put me back on cabling duties. I had to finish sorting out the coolant ratios, and then work with Anjuli to find ways to increase the engine’s efficiency by at least another three per cent. The modifications Vee had made to the engine already had it running at optimal capacity. I don’t know where Darren thought Anjuli and I would find an extra three per cent, but I wasn’t about to argue with him. Life was too short.

Hours later, the coolant ratios sorted, Anjuli and I were sitting at a panel trying various efficiency permutations. At least that’s what I was doing. Anjuli, it turns out, was doing something entirely different.

‘Nathan, I’ve been over these calculations five times,’ Anjuli began, her voice barely above a whisper. ‘D’you remember that story Vee told about how she sabotaged the engines of the Mazon ships before she rescued us from Barros 5?’

‘Yeah?’ Where was Anjuli going with this?

‘Well, even wearing a protection suit, Vee would’ve lasted five maybe six seconds maximum in the Mazon engine core and that’s with Aidan diverting most of the power from the ship’s energy reserves to wrap her in a nano-field. Maybe seven seconds, if God was standing beside her at the time. But no more. She certainly couldn’t have stayed in the engine cores for ten seconds or more like she said. So either she’s lying about the time she spent in each Mazon engine core or—’