Ghost of Mind Episode One (17 page)

She nodded her head. ‘I do love it when
you get over cautious.’

‘
Thank me later when we head into the Rim.
It would be a real pity if we found we had a saboteur on board when
we face up against the pirate fleet.’

Parka snorted, and it was a thoroughly
undignified sound. ‘I wouldn't go that far, John, I think your
imagination is getting the better of you. Maybe the prospect of
meeting dear Evelyn over there is confusing you,’ Parka said
through a smile.

To her race, life was about romance. You
weren't fulfilling your function as a living breathing being unless
you were spending it with somebody else. He'd been to her home
world once upon a time, and it was an experience he'd never
forget.

Her race were free about their emotions and
their desires.

But regardless of Parka's culture, that
comment had been out of line. ‘That's enough,’ he said in a low,
warning voice.

She nodded her head sharply, though she
didn't erase the sparkle in her eye as she turned her gaze back to
Evelyn. ‘I will keep you informed, Commander.’

With that she walked out of the room.

Latching a hand on his shoulder, digging his
fingers into the muscle and bone, John turned back to the front of
the bridge.

His eyes were drawn to the perfect of image
of Evelyn.

She wasn't his type, was she? John tended to
like his women with pluck. Plus, Admiral Fletcher would probably
kill him if anything were to happen between John and Evelyn.

Then again, some things in this universe were
worth dying over.

Chapter 27

Alice

It had been days. Several long and arduous
days, but Alice was back on her feet. Her bones had healed, the
cracks in her skin were gone, and she was alert and steady on her
feet.

She still had not moved from her position in
the service ducts, exactly where she had fallen. She would
sometimes crawl along a little, face one of the security fields for
a different view, then crawl back to her position.

She did not want to move until she was good
and ready, until her body was healed and her natural energy
reserves had been recharged.

And that time was rapidly approaching her. As
she leant against the bulkhead behind her, soaking up the rays of
the omidium core meters and meters behind, she let out a satisfied
and relieved sigh.

Somehow she was alive. She'd lived through
that harrowing experience. Just to prove that point she brought her
hands up, turned them over, and stared at them hard.

They were hers alright. And they were no
longer cracked and broken.

‘
Lucky,’ she said. She let the word ring
out and echo through the enclosed space around her.

She really had been lucky. Not many people
could have put themselves through what Alice had endured without
getting thoroughly killed.

Alice rested there against that bulkhead with
her eyes closed for too long to count. Not ready to move from the
warmth and safety just yet, she just let a genuine smile spread her
lips.

Being this close to the core, she felt
connected to it. It was no surprise then when she felt it powering
down long before the distinctive hum of it changed.

She snapped her eyes open.

The ship was slowing down.

She pushed herself up from the bulkhead.

She still did not know what ship she had
wondered on to or where it was headed. Her only priority had been
finding an omidium core. But right now as the prospect that the
ship was about to dock somewhere loomed large in her mind, Alice
got ready to move.

Though the prospect of staying close to the
core was a tempting one, she would not be able to do so forever.
Eventually she would be found out.

But it was just so hard to drag herself away.
There were precious few omidium power sources on Orion Minor; the
backwater planet could not afford technology like that. In fact,
that Alice had found one had been a stroke of unbelievable luck.
The only vessels that tended to have them were Union Force ships or
experimental research cruisers; in other words, ships the Union
would be happy to spend the funds on.

‘
You have to move,’ Alice begged herself.
‘Stay here and someone will catch you.’

She knew that, god did she know that. But the
pull of staying near the core was so great. Alice hardly ever felt
safe, but basking in its light she got a glimpse at that welcome
state of being.

‘
Move, come one,’ she grumbled.

The engine's distinct hum had changed, and
its output had reduced to half.

They were obviously near docking.

Come on, she thought one last time as she
shifted along the service duct. When she had first clambered her
way in, her body had been so broken that the process of crawling
had almost killed her. Now as Alice moved she did so lithely and
easily. Her body was strong and fast again. She felt like she could
take on the world. Though of course she hoped she wouldn't have to.
She'd had her fill of fights for the time being.

As Alice reached the first of the security
fields that ran around the engine core, protecting the inhabitants
of the vessel from the unique form of radiation omidium produced,
she got ready to yank open a panel and start to hack it.

She didn't get the chance.

She felt it before she heard it, before the
blessed light dwindled from behind her.

The core shut down.

Usually a ship never shut down its engines,
regardless of whether it was in dock or not; they ran all ship's
processes, after all, not just propulsion.

You only shut down your engine if you had to
do direct maintenance on the core.

As the engine died with a distinct hum,
Alice's back prickled with cold.

There was no problem with the engine; she
would have felt it. Being this close and being capable of
connecting with and feeding off the distinct energy of omidium, she
could understand the engine like a mother to their child.

The engine was fine. It felt like there was a
small problem in one of the magnifier coils, and it sounded like
the core chamber could do with a clear out, but that was it.
Nothing worth shutting the whole thing down over.

Unless of course you were trying to track a
problem. Or, more to the point, a person who was curled up close to
your precious engine.

Did they know?

Had they found out she was down here?

Alice brought her hand up and punched it into
the panel just before the security field. She didn't have time to
be subtle; she had to get out of here.

Ripping her hand into the exposed cables
beyond the panel, she yanked them right out. A huge amount of
electricity discharged up her arm.

She just ignored it. Now she was running at
top energy again, she could do something like that.

Repeating the process, Alice crawled through
the tunnels as fast as she could, shutting down each force field
that got in her way. With the engines shut down, there would be no
chance that the inhabitants of the ship would be fried by the
omidium radiation. Still, Alice was not so desperate that she
didn't bother to put the fields back into place afterwards to hide
her tracks, just as she had done when she had entered the ship.

Other than that, she ran.

Chapter 28

John Doe

John took the opportunity to stretch his
shoulders as far as he could and twist his head around. He was
still standing on his own just by the front of his ship. They had
docked in the spacious almost palatial docking ring of Orion Major.
The ring generated its own gravity and atmosphere, and it meant
John could take deep breaths of air as he waited.

He was standing in his dress uniform. He
hated the thing. The high collar itched his neck. Shoving a finger
into it and fiddling with the stiff fabric, he scratched at his
eyebrow.

For a second he turned behind him to clap
eyes on the Pegasus. His ship.

She really was beautiful. An experimental
Galaxy Class cruiser, she was equipped with the latest omidium
core. She was fast and powerful, and exactly what you wanted when
you were headed deep into pirate territory.

She wasn't large; four levels, only 500
meters long, but she wasn't small either.

She was perfect for John. Fast and able, and
with the best crew around.

He could never stop himself from smiling
whenever he saw her.

He reached out a hand to run it across the
giant nose that arched up above him.

‘
Commander,’ he heard a gruff voice
announce from behind him.

John whirled on his foot.

Admiral Fletcher was walking up the metal
walkway, Evelyn at his side.

She fixed him with a smile the second she saw
him. And even though John wasn't the type, he almost wanted to
blush.

Straightening up and locking his arms
behind him, John gave a low nod. ‘Admiral, Evelyn,’ he said,
nodding at them both in turn.

‘
I heard you've got engine trouble,’ the
Admiral growled by way of salutation.

John shook his head, always keeping his
arms rigid and stiff behind him, the hands locked together.
‘Nothing to be alarmed of, sir. My Chief Engineer is running a
diagnostic. We've had slight fluctuations in the power grid. She
assures me it will be sorted in the hour.’

The Admiral gave a curt nod. A sour
looking man with hallow eyes and grey beard, the Admiral did not
look like the kind to smile, ever. ‘I see. I have briefed you in
full, Commander, and I should not have to remind you that Evelyn is
an extremely important asset. Look after her,’ he said, voice slow
and pointed.

No, he really, really didn't need to
remind John of that; the Admiral had repeated that point to the
n
^th
degree.

But John didn't point that out, instead he
flicked his eyes to Evelyn just as the Admiral called her an
asset.

He saw her eyes drop down to the floor for a
second, then her gaze quickly levelled and she looked his way.

No one should have to be called an asset. It
was dehumanizing. Guns and ships and engine cores were assets;
people were so much more.

‘
Evelyn will require her own quarters,’ the
Admiral began, then he continued by listing the extraordinary
number of resources the woman would need.

Rather than make a face, John kept his
expression even. He did however flick his gaze over to her once as
she mouthed the word 'sorry' clearly his way.

It got his attention, even made the corner of
his mouth curl.

He liked her already.

When the Admiral had finished, he demanded a
tour of the ship, then told John he would meet them in the
diplomatic district of the docking ring at 14:00 for a final
debrief.

It was an odd experience taking the Admiral
and Evelyn around his ship. John felt like a tour guide, a really
bad one. What made it worse was that his crew were all snapping
salutes and scurrying around looking busy, obviously trying to
impress the Admiral.

It made him feel so awkward. And it really
didn't help every time Evelyn leaned to the side and stifled a
smile or soft laugh with her hand. By the time it was over and
Evelyn and the Admiral disembarked, John was ready to throw himself
into the engine core.

‘
Oooh, that went well,’ Parka walked up
behind him and slammed a hand on his shoulder when the Admiral was
sufficiently far down the gangway that her voice would not
travel.

When the Admiral was finally out of sight,
John turned and shook his head, pressing his fingers into his nose
as he walked around the side of the Pegasus, heading for the
gangway.

‘
Wow, she likes you,’ Parka
began.

He put up a hand quickly.

Parka put up her own hands, her multiple
fingers spreading wide. ‘Hey, I'm not going to say
anything.’

Grumbling, John decided to leave it. ‘Tell
me you've got good news about the core. I kind of promised the
Admiral that you would have it sorted by the hour.’

‘
Well you are lucky, because we've tested
the bulkhead and there are no cracks,’ Parka said, but as she did,
the smile practically slipped from her face.

For the first time John really looked at her,
and he realized that she had something hidden behind her back.

‘
What?’ his skin started to prickle down
his spine.

She brought around a section of metal. It
looked like plating. It had a massive dent in it.

Parka turned it around in her hands for a
while.

‘
What is it?’ he asked, voice
slower.

‘
I actually don't know. Okay, no, I know
what it is; its hull plating off service duct 2B. But I can't tell
you how it got a dent in it like that,’ she kept considering the
piece of metal, twisting it easily around in her hands. Her race
was strong, after all.

‘
Have you run it through the scanner?’ John
nodded its way. ‘Any biological residue?’ his voice was tight.
Though Parka had laughed at the suggestion, the possibility that
there was a saboteur aboard John's ship suddenly looked highly
likely.

Parka shook her head. ‘Nothing, no
residue.’

‘
Robot then?’ John suggested.

‘
You don't understand where I found this,
obviously you don't know your ship's blueprint well enough to
realize where service duct 2B is.’

‘
Just tell me.’

Parka stopped twirling the metal around.
She looked straight at him. ‘It's right near the core. About as
close as you could get. No robot, let alone a biological could
withstand the radiation of the omidium core; it fries anything in
sight.’