Fatal Boarding (16 page)

"Will I get to meet this individual?"

"No, only if something happens to me. Any
valid questions you have, I will relay at my regular appointments.
Remember, we have no authority over this person. They ask for
nothing, we demand nothing. Never think of them as a member of the
crew."

"Jesus!"

"They are an absolute necessity. They have
prevented many diplomatic catastrophes."

"And he's been no help with our
problems?"

"No. If we can provide more data, there may
eventually be some help."

"If something did happen to you, how would I
contact him?"

"You wouldn't. We do not initiate contact.
Meetings take place here in my stateroom. Grey looked over in the
direction of his terminals. "That door between the control stations
opens to a corridor that leads directly to the special quarters. It
can only be opened from the other side. As I’ve said, it is not
shown on the ship's floor plan. If a meeting is necessary, it will
occur through there."

"How will he know I'm here?"

"They don't use verbal communication. You
can, but they do not."

"I don't get it."

"You'll hear it in your head.
Telepathy."

It made me want to laugh. The Captain was
playing a kid's game, but was dragging it out. The punch line was
overdue. The joke wasn't going to work. I left there and abruptly
realized I had no idea where I was. This was supposed to have been
a star-charting cruise, dull and uneventful. Get my credits and
head for the beach. Suddenly, it had become a stranding, an
untrustworthy layover in space filled with confusion, disease, and
foreboding. The future had stopped and wasn't scheduled to start
again until 13:00, and even that was a bad bet.

Chapter 17

By the time I reached Tolson’s office, the
Ex/O news had circulated through the ship like wildfire. Loyal Ann
Marie sat at her desk holding back tears. I consoled her as best I
could, explained things in the least hurtful way, and asked her to
take some time for herself. She hugged me and handed me an ugly
little report that said five more people were unaccounted for.

R.J. stuck his head in the door as she was
leaving. He had a clipboard and a bound stack of printouts under
his left arm. I motioned him in and we sat and stared at each
other. R.J. squirmed, and gave in to curiosity.

"So what'd he say to you?"

"Oh, just some trivial things, like I'm Ex/O
now, whether I like it or not."

"And I thought we were in trouble before
this."

"Thanks so much. It's nothing, really."

"What else did he say?"

"He said the ship's rapidly falling
apart."

"Ah, he knows."

"What did he say to you?"

"In summery?"

"That'll do."

"He said to keep my mouth shut. Like I'm
going to Paul Revere down the halls yelling that the blob is on
board!"

"What's with the lap full of printouts? Have
you become so neurotic that you need a hundred crossword puzzles
now, to keep that incessant mind of yours occupied?"

"Almost. Actually, I'm still stuck on givers
of pain and pleasure. This stack is the data segment brought back
from the alien ship. The one they thought was star charts."

"And it's not?"

"The Data Analysis folks accidentally
translated the directory name. It means, Trash. We may have found a
garbage file that wasn't emptied. So, with the help of the first
translation, they think this particular file I have in my lap was
called 'Adrena'. No idea what that means. Any thoughts?"

"Not off hand."

"Anyway, the directory and file name
translations don't seem to be any help in understanding the file
itself. It's like a whole different code. To me, it's like the best
possible crossword puzzle. I'm working it on my own. In all the
confusion, they could have cared less that I walked off with it.
Can I keep it?"

"Be discreet."

"Any good news on Tolson?"

"Wow, you not only want news, you
specifically want good news!"

"Well, that answers that."

"So, R.J., I guess you've just given me an
update on progress by the Data Analysis group."

"You now know everything they know."

"Good. I've got enough stuff to cram into my
head in the next hour, as it is."

"By the way, you remember that pet theory of
mine that I didn't tell you?"

"How can I remember something you haven't
told me?"

"Let me ask you this, Tolson was supposed to
have been paranoid delusional. What didn't he do?"

"What do you mean? The Doctor said a lot of
the crew has been having terrible nightmares. Tolson had his awake.
He found the best hiding place he could, and covered himself with a
sun-guard foil so that whatever monsters were after him, wouldn't
find him."

"Yes. But what didn't he do?"

"Come on, R.J."

"The airlock door. He could have locked it
from the inside. It was unlocked when you and I opened it. Why go
to all that trouble to hide in there, and then leave the six inch
thick door, that would have protected him from nearly anything,
unlocked?"

R.J.'s logic set me back for a moment. "I
doubt he was thinking too clearly."

"Maybe. How's your memory? Any better?"

"The same."

"How about Brandon's. She was with Tolson
last?"

"I haven't had time to see if there's an
update."

"Your not feeling slimy, I hope?"

"Please...!"

"This could all fit into my wild
theory."

"Will you tell me?"

"One more thing to check, then yes, I'll go
way out on a limb. Only thing is, when I think about it, it makes
me want to go hide in an airlock somewhere." R.J. jumped up and
headed for the door. He looked back briefly, tapped the close key
and stepped through as it shut.

I put R.J.'s usually odd behavior aside, and
glanced at the Commander’s indoctrination file, but decided the
newest missing persons report had to be given precedence. Ann Marie
had already forwarded it to the screen in front of me.

It was an odd assortment of people, one
engineering assistant, one planner, two maintenance workers, and
one clerk/typist. At first, there seemed to be nothing common. I
brought up a correlation program and ran it. It came back with a
single word: Sickbay. They were on their way to sickbay during the
zero-G period when last seen.

I buzzed security. A moment later a
coordinator’s face appeared on the screen.

"Yes?"

"These missing persons reports. They were
all headed for sickbay. It was a madhouse down there. There's a
good chance these people aren't really missing. Ask the first shift
coordinator to assign one person to each of these cases and have
them report back as soon as possible."

"Right away."

I leaned back and opened the manila file
folder with the Ex/O indoctrination instructions. It was dry
reading, including the brief on the emissary. They were so advanced
just reading about their lifestyles was boring. Isolated
individuals who existed as a community for appearance’s sake only.
Their philosophy held that by participating in the education of
developing cultures in their sector of the galaxy, they could
minimize the need for any other contact. Their own explanation for
helping us was brutally honest.

I found the access code sheet and programmed
the designated numbers into the secure-systems start-up data. There
were password requirements for the Armory, Amplight engines,
Tachyon drives, thruster control enable, life support, fuel
storage, and the escape pod system. Next I disabled the individual
escape pod deployment options and redirected them to security
control as the Captain had instructed. As I finished the last of
them, a call icon appeared in the upper corner of the screen.

It was Paul Kusama, the lead propulsion
engineer. "Commander, we received notification of your upgrade and
new assignment. Sorry it wasn’t under better circumstances. We were
under orders to report directly to the Captain, but have not been
able to raise him."

"What's up?"

"Well, sorry about this. In the confusion
that's been going on, we overlooked the fact that when you de-cable
a thruster, you lose a mandatory handshake and that makes the
thruster inoperative. It's a check so they can't misfire without a
control system attached. We can still do the manual firing, but we
need to fabricate a black box for each of the thrusters we intend
to use, to fool the thruster into thinking it's still hooked up.
That'll take say, about half a day. Say twelve hours."

"I'll notify Grey, myself. In the meantime,
assume he will want to do that and go ahead and get going on
it."

"Already have, Commander. Kusama out."

Before I had time to wonder about the
Captain, another call icon flashed on. "Tarn, go ahead."

"Adrian, what the hell's going on?" It was
Frank Parker. He looked perturbed. "We need to speak with Grey.
Where is he?"

"What's up, Frank?"

"We were supposed to deploy the two scout
craft at 12:00. We've got the pilots tucked in, their cabins
pressurized and the engines idling. But, we can't get the hanger to
depressurize. Where is Grey? He was supposed to be monitoring this
op."

"Have you been able to analyze the
problem?"

"All we know is, all of a sudden the
environmental control system for the hanger won't accept commands.
We expected to have problems opening the big doors. We were going
to do a manual on that. This is the first environmental system on
the ship that's been affected, that I know of. So what do we
do?”

"Keep working on it. Let the pilots sit.
I'll go find Grey personally. I'll get back to you shortly."

I cleared the screen and rubbed my eyes.
There had been barely enough time to get through the indoctrination
procedure and already I was left with more problems than one person
could handle. Grey couldn't actually be part of the missing persons
list. Just for verification, I tried to reach him myself. No
success.

Accompanied by two armed guards, I headed
back to Grey's stateroom. Each time things seemed to be as bad as
they could get, they got worse. Grey had recently been exposed to
Tolson in his transitory condition. Neither R.J. nor I seemed
affected, but the Captain may have been more susceptible. Outside
his stateroom, I opened the control panel and punched in my newly
received access code numbers. For the second time in one morning I
would be entering the Captain's quarters, a place I had not even
seen before today.

The room was deserted. I asked the guards to
wait outside and shut the door. I went to Grey's terminal and found
one still in use. The Captain's log was displayed there. The last
entry was a lengthy description of Tolson's condition, and the
method by which he planned to deal with it. There was also an
unfinished paragraph detailing the Captain's misgivings about the
future. Midway through the last sentence something had interrupted
him.

I closed the log and looked around the room.
It appeared undisturbed. There were no other clues to be found. I
shook my head and turned to leave, but was startled by the sound of
a panel sliding open. The mysterious door behind Grey's computer
had opened, revealing a corridor of darkness.

From within a brilliant, cloaked figure
hesitantly emerged. It stopped at the door and seemed unwilling to
go further. Grey had neglected to mention one thing. The figure was
feminine. Her features were just as Grey had described, except for
the faint slit of a mouth. Her robe was white and covered by
diamond glitter. There was an aura of euphoria about her. Despite
my prejudice, I wanted to move close to her and submerge myself
within it. It was like an ecstatic, angelic gravity.

I stood dumbstruck for a moment, but quickly
recovered. "I'm Tarn."

Her mouth never moved, but I heard every
word. "Adrian Daniel Tarn, son of Daniel and Eileen Tarn."

It was intrusive, someone reading my mind
and putting things in there without my permission. I heard her
again.

"No, you capitulate."

I tried to think of nothing.

"Your Captain absent."

"Missing at the moment. He was here within
the hour."

"Harm has befallen him."

"How do you know that?"

"What is the condition of your vessel?"

I tried not to think the answer.

"You remain stranded."

"No,
we
remain stranded."

"Continue to provide information there." She
raised one robed hand toward the terminal Grey had been using, then
backed away and the door slid slowly shut.

I stood speechless and tried to sort out
what had just happened. There had seemed to be a brighter light in
the room from her presence. The silent emptiness had returned with
her departure. Even so, she had not impressed me. Somehow, I did
not feel inferior.

So, the ET was online, and the ET was
worried. It made me worry even more.

Chapter 18

I left one guard stationed outside Grey's
stateroom, and hurried back to Security. It was a department title
beginning to sound like an oxymoron. There were too many missing
people. To begin another ship-wide search would only add to the
state of confusion building throughout the ship. There were two
scout craft idling in the hanger bay with pilots suited up in them.
By now, the jump director was on the bridge setting up to attempt a
haphazard thruster move. Engineers were readying their consoles,
systems were being tested.

When I arrived, Ann Marie had returned and
was trying to calm a red-faced Maureen Brandon. With the bat of an
eye, Brandon turned her fury on me.

"Why wasn't I notified about Commander
Tolson's condition? I want to speak to the Captain immediately.
When were you authorized to act in Jim Tolson's behalf? Why was I
left out of the decision making process?"