Dark Vengeance (6 page)

“There’s gonna be questions. Why wait for them to come to us?”

“Well, you’re not directly involved, are you?”

“No, but who knows about alien legal systems.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much. It’s bad business to execute the guests, don’t you think?”

“I seem to have no sense of humor at this point.”

I stood stiffly, rubbed my face and looked down at myself. “Oh! I’m still dressed! How convenient. Perfect attire for gawking.”

We opened the stateroom door just in time to see an antigravity gurney with a covered body pass by. The staff members guiding it seemed very alarmed and their collars were not those of medical personnel.

We stepped out to the concourse and looked both ways. The area of crowded confusion was aft, in front of the doors to engineering.

A frightened, worried crowd is a quite an odd spectacle. Panic has not yet become a viable option, although each member of the nervous group continually scans the others for any sign it is time for that particular stampede. Participants are unable to stand still at all, moving in small steps from one spot to another in a foxtrot of sorts that allows bodily movement to aid in dispersing the discomfort of anxiety. The low tones of idle conversations do little to console the group, instead adding a certain dimension of dubiousness to the expectant waiting. The assemblage impatiently anticipates the arrival of an appropriately authoritative person who is authorized to say the magic phrase that concludes all such happenings, “Move along, please, move along, nothing to see here.” Invariably they linger for a moment, then leave in uninformed disappointment.

To our surprise something upset the flow of the gathering. It was a second gurney being maneuvered through. We watched the covered body pass by, surprised again that this second victim appeared to be no more than five feet tall. A guest succumbing to heart failure would have been an easy tragedy to understand, but a staff member as one of two victims was difficult to comprehend.   

An authority figure we had not seen before appeared in the midst of them. He was a foot or so taller than most of the gawkers, wore a blue uniform with gold trim and had a gold collar that impressed the word “Captain” in our minds when we looked directly at it. He wore a flat blue hat with just a wisp of visor. Most of the crowd around him consisted of various staff members but a few guests towered above him here and there. The guests addressed the Captain in a somewhat demanding posture, although the Captain’s linguistic skills seemed more than capable. In just a few moments the entire entourage dispersed in various directions, many casting dubious looks as they passed us by.

As the Captain approached, he noticed R.J. and me hanging back and maneuvered to where we were standing. “Gentleman, if would you please return to your staterooms, I will stop by as soon as I’m free and personally explain everything.”

“If we can be of any assistance, Captain. Please let us know,” I said.

“Thank you. I’ll be with the two of you shortly.”

We sat back in my stateroom, drinking R.J’s latest blend of tea, hoping that our peaceful transit to Enuro had not become a tangled mess of security affidavits and martial law.

“Trouble in paradise,” declared R.J. as he replaced his cup on the saucer.

“Bernard sure can pick them,” I replied.

“Maybe it’s you, not him.”

“Hey, I’d still be asleep if you hadn’t kept shaking me.”

“Wasn’t there some agency report that said you seem to be involved in 84.3 percent more controversies than any other officer?”

“Had to bring that up, didn’t you.”

It was a thirty minute wait before the door chimed. R.J. put his tea carefully down, got up, and opened it. The Captain stepped in, nodded to us both and took R.J.’s seat. R.J. leaned against the information desk.

“I’m Captain Mars, Gentlemen. Let me first apologize for this unsettling circumstance that has just occurred. Your comfort and peace of mind are paramount to us. This has been most unfortunate.”

“We’re okay, Captain. Just curious,” I said.

“Yes, you’re both command level officers. Of course you’re familiar with the unexpected.”

“If you give us an idea of what happened, perhaps we could be of some assistance to you,” offered R.J.

“I appreciate the offer, Gentlemen, especially from professionals such as you, but it seems the matter has settled itself. Apparently one of our security officers caught a thief stealing from some of the guests. The suspect resisted arrest and in the ensuing scuffle he was shot and killed. Unfortunately our officer also succumbed to wounds suffered at the hands of the assailant. It’s all very unfortunate but at least we’ve recovered the stolen items and there is no longer any danger.”

“Captain Mars, would you be willing to show us where this happened? Just as a professional courtesy?” asked R.J.

“We would like to put this terrible event behind us as quickly as possible, Commander Smith. I do not see any good reason to prolong the situation. The case is closed.”

“My friend is an expert in security matters, Captain Mars. He could be of assistance to you in your final report,” I added.

The Captain eyed us with the look of a well-seasoned professional. “Well, as I’ve said, I know you are both command level officers. I believe I can trust you both to use the utmost in discretion. If it would put your minds more at ease, an exception could be made. Come with me.”

He led us aft to the security office next to the main engineering entrance. The room had already been cleaned and restored to its normal state. He stood in the center of the room and waited for us to enter. “Apparently Security Officer Ree noticed the suspect at some point and came looking for him, weapon drawn. The suspect hid here in this outer security office and when Ree entered the room, he struck Ree on the head and arm, knocking his weapon to the floor. There was a scuffle between the two and Ree managed to shove the suspect away against the weapons locker over there. Ree dived for his weapon on the floor and managed to get off three shots. Two missed but the third struck the suspect in the chest, killing him. Officer Ree then succumbed to the head injury. We found him here on the floor, his disrupter weapon a few inches away. The suspect was on the floor over there by the weapons locker. His pockets were still filled with jewels he had stolen from guest staterooms. We found the signature of the two shots that missed in the weapons locker cabinet door just above the suspect’s body, along with the single disrupter injury to the suspect’s chest. Officer Ree will be given a hero’s commendation for his sacrifice, of course. If not for his actions we might still have a dangerous criminal onboard.”

I could see the gears turning in R.J.’s head. It’s an expression that comes over his face in situations like these that is an amazing thing to behold. He seems to become another person at times, so completely captivated by the puzzle that his consciousness is lost within it. He looked over each area described by the Captain, then looked up at us with that strange intensity that would make anyone take notice. “Captain, how did the suspect manage to steal all the jewelry you found in his pockets?”

“It’s an unusual and disturbing technique, one that is very difficult to defend against. The suspect was one of our guests, using a false identity. He was a Sentian.”

R.J. let out a low groan of understanding.

“Yes, I see that you understand,” said the Captain. “It is said that Sentians can see through and even pass through materials that possess a density less than 11.3 grams per cubic centimeter. We have heard reports of Sentians who search guests' rooms from outside until they’ve found items of high enough value, then they enter through a wall or partition and collect those items when the area is unoccupied. A spacecraft like Star Seven is a perfect place to employ such a plan. It would be structurally impossible to shield every compartment properly to prevent such a crime. This particular Sentian was able to use the same technique to gain access to a forward maintenance area where he disabled the midship and aft video monitors before beginning his crime spree. Officer Ree was a personal friend, yet I find myself relieved that he stopped this Sentian when he did.”

“We appreciate you taking us into your confidence, Captain. Maybe this will help us to protect our people in the future,” I said.

R.J. asked, “Captain, are you certain of the sequence of events? Were you able to autopsy both individuals yet? Has this room been tested?”

“Yes, Commander. As I’ve mentioned, we found the signatures of the two missed disrupter blasts in the weapons locker door, and the wound to the Sentian’s chest also confirm what I’ve told you. There was only one curious piece of evidence, but I believe that was just an oddity, nothing more.”

“What was that?” asked R.J.

“As a routine in these matters, we always verify everything possible. We ran a quick check for the palm and finger prints on the Officer’s weapon to be absolutely certain he fired the shots. We found no forensic evidence on the weapon’s grip at all. No prints whatsoever. It has to be that the weapon was wiped by the officers clothing as it fell, or somehow as he lay dying on the floor. Very unusual, but not impossible.”

“So you don’t use smart weapons here, Captain?” I asked.

“We have found that those systems fail from time to time and we will never take the chance of giving an officer a weapon that will not fire.”

I nodded my understanding. R.J. continued to wander around the room.

“Gentleman, if there’s nothing more, I need to return to the flight deck,” said the Captain.

“Thank you so much,” I replied.

“Yes, thank you, Captain,” said R.J.

“If you think of anything we’ve missed, please let me know, Commander,” said the Captain and he turned and left the room.

I watched R.J. continue to walk around like a bloodhound searching for a scent.

“Pretty cut and dry there Sherlock, wouldn’t you say?”

R.J. did not reply. He stood with one hand stroking his beard.

“That was nice of him to let us in on it. It surprised me,” I added.

Still no response from R.J.

“Okay, think I’ll step outside the airlock and be one with nature.”

R.J. seemed not to have heard a word of it. I laughed and left him to his puzzle.

Back in my comfort zone, feet propped up on the desk, I resumed reading my tablet by the artificial light through my artificial curtains. My tea was cold but it was scenting the air in such a pleasant way reheating became compulsory. Once reheated and reseated, I resumed the classic novel on my laptop. It was a very old John D. MacDonald book titled, “Pale Gray For Guilt.” The fact that the story had been written so long ago made the book even more profound. Not only did it show how little the devious people of today had changed from those of the past, it also contained author insights into the future that were so right on they seemed prophetic.

An hour flew by. Finally R.J. came tromping through the adjoining door, plunked a scanner down on my night stand, and flopped down on the bed. He sat back against the headboard, his legs crossed, feet hanging off the edge.

“It’s all wrong,” he said.

“To what do you refer, Sir?”

“The Captain’s series of events in the security office.”

I sat back from my novel, concerned this was going somewhere. “It sounded pretty wrapped up to me.”

“Nope.”

“The place was cleaned. There was nothing left there to find.”

“Yeah there was.”

“A sterile, empty office? What could you have possibly spotted that they did not?”

“Extra shots fired, for one thing.”

“For one thing? You mean there’s more?”

“Trajectory variance, and the reason there were no prints on the weapon.”

“What are you talking about? Have you told the Captain about this yet?”

“Not yet. I thought you might like to be there.”

After a poorly received call to the bridge, we made a brisk jaunt back to the security room, then mulled around the desk waiting for the Captain’s arrival. It was more than an hour wait. When he finally showed, he had a look of exasperation along with a good measure of annoyance.

“Thank you for coming, Captain. We know your schedule must be overloaded about now,” I said.

“You think you have additional information, you said? What do you have?”

R.J. took over. “There were some things your forensic examination did not include, Captain.”

“Then I am at your disposal, though I cannot imagine that anything could have been missed.”

“I’ll get right to it, Captain,” said R.J. “On the wall right next to the door where you’re standing. Slightly above the level of your head, there are two additional disrupter signatures. It’s likely they were missed because the signatures are weaker, and the original scenario explained everything so well that no one thought to look further.”

The Captain looked at the wall and pointed to the general area. “Here?”

“Yes.”

“But how could any shots have been fired that would strike the wall here?”

“They were fired by the Sentian, Captain.”

“The Sentian did not have a weapon, Commander.”