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 hangar 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?"
I had to cut her off. "Maureen, I'm very busy at the moment, but it’s okay. I need to speak with you about something. Let's go in the office, okay?"
She cocked her head back and stared. I held my outstretched hand in the direction of the door. She sneered and marched in ahead of me. I glanced at Ann Marie long enough to see her roll her eyes and shake her head.
Before the door could close, Brandon started in again. "Why were you selected as Commander Tolson's replacement? You're not the most qualified. Is that a standing order, or just a temporary assignment?"
"Listen, Maureen. We don't have time to go over everything that's happened."
"Why haven't I been reinstated to duty? Commander Tolson assured me he would do that today!" She stammered the last part, remembering too late how much I knew.
"You're back on duty as of now, Maureen. And I need your help with something important. It will be Data Analysis’ and Life Science’s number one priority."
Curiosity overcame anger. "By whose authority? What is the requirement?"
"Missing persons. We have a number of them. Captain Grey has just been added to the list."
"You must be joking!"
"In my position, do you think I would make jokes about this?"
"What has Life Sciences got to do with missing people?"
"If you'll let me finish, I'll explain. Life Science controls the scanning array which detects any life forms on the places we visit. I need to know can that capability be reconfigured to look for life signs on board this ship?"
It took her a second to put her animosity aside and realize what needed to be done. She looked up with a disarmed expression. "You want Life Sciences to scan the interior of the ship to look for missing people?"
"Can it be done?"
"Why don't you just conduct a deck by deck search?"
"I need something faster. Can it be done?"
"Yes, it's been done before. It's considered a waste of resources in such a controlled area, but the arrays are electronically steerable."
"And you would be able to isolate individual crewman and tell me where they are located?"
"We couldn't identify them, of course, but yes, we would be able to see where each one is. It's a simple x, y, z, axis translation into decks and compartments."
"How long to set up and do it?"
"If they drop everything else, maybe 30 minutes."
"Please coordinate with Dr. Leadstrom and start immediately. Let nothing interrupt you." I stood and tapped the door open for her. She remained seated as though she were searching for an adequate way to protest. Finally, with a look of restrained contempt, she waved a hand in frustration, then stood and stiffly left the room.
I leaned against the door and watched her go. Ann Marie looked up sympathetically from her desk.
"Ann Marie, please call up the personnel database and put her back on active, God help us. Then call Kusama on the Bridge and tell him to have the Bridge crew stand down. There will be a meeting for department heads and Bridge officers in one hour; make that 14:00. Call Frank Parker and tell him to shut down the Scouts and get the pilots out. The attempt will be rescheduled. Then, contact Doctor Pacell and patch me in. And, one last thing, in fifteen minutes patch me through to Life Sciences so I can be sure she's doing what I asked. Got all that?"
"Got it. But, some of them won't like it."
"I'm glad you're here, Ann Marie."
By the time I sat back down at Jim Tolson's terminal, she had the emergency OR already on the line. It took a minute for Doctor Pacell to arrive at his station.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, Doctor. Any progress?"
On my screen, Pacell looked off to his left and made a quick wave of direction, then returned his attention. "I have nothing for you as yet, Adrian. I've organized a team to work on our problem, but we're just getting started. It took a while for them to adjust if you know what I mean. Did the Captain advise you this was being done?"
"Yes, I understand. That's part of my reason for calling. The Captain appears to be missing now. Under the circumstances, I doubt he would willfully allow himself to be out of touch. Is it possible he was more susceptible than the rest of us and has contracted the same thing as Tolson?"
It alarmed the Doctor still further. He tilted his head forward and furrowed his brow. He stared at me through the screen for a moment and then shook his head. "Adrian, we can't even say this is an infection. It could be some sort of radiation poisoning or even something in the water supply. In any case, if the Captain is missing it's very possibly an indication that whatever this is, it may be spreading rapidly. He must be found immediately for there to be any hope!"
Ann Marie's icon began flashing in the corner of my screen. "We're working on it, Doctor. Is there anything preventative you can suggest we do at this point?"
"Only that you keep things as calm as possible. Word is already starting to leak out about Tolson. I'm afraid we'll have mass hysteria on our hands soon if we don't control it."
The Life Sciences icon began flashing below Ann Marie's. "I'm not sure how to control this, Doctor. We can't go making a ship-wide announcement asking everyone to remain calm."
To my surprise, the office door slid open. R.J. was being held back by Ann Marie. They were arguing. R.J. had his clipboard and printouts in one hand and was trying to gently break away with the other.
"Adrian, we've got to talk; now!"
I turned back to the screen. "Doctor, I'll call you back."
"Pacell, out."
I swiveled to face them. "R.J., I’ve got more than anyone could possibly handle right now. Life Sciences is holding. Is it that important?"
Ann Marie let go of his shoulder. He charged in and sat by the desk facing me, resting his clipboard and printouts in his lap. "I know what's going on. It's insane, but I know I'm right!"
I have learned to give R.J. latitude. He is often eccentric, but highly reliable. His mind tends to become relentless when in pursuit of understanding. A mystery has no chance against him. I looked over at the flashing Life Sciences icon and then back at him. I waved at Ann Marie to close the door. "Okay, old friend. Everyone else waits. What is so important?"
He puffed up and leaned forward. "I can't prove it yet, so you must hear the evidence. When I'm through, you'll agree."
"I'm all ears."
"I just played every computer game we have on board. I won some and lost some."
"R.J., Life Sciences is holding!"
"The point is they all worked perfectly. So, I did a study of which of our systems are failing, and which are not."
"So? We did that, too. No common denominators."
"Yes! Yes, yes, common denominators! Take it one system at a time. What failed first?”
“Navigation.”
“And what happens when you lose Navigation?”
“You can’t go anywhere.”
“Okay, what failed next?”
“Propulsion related systems.”
“And what happens when you lose that?”
&
nbsp; “Obviously, again, you can’t go anywhere.”
“And the next failure?”
“Environmental, gravity.”
“And so you lose what?”
“Your lunch and the ability to accelerate to light.”
“Do you see the pattern? All the systems we need to leave have crashed. Now, which stuff has been okay?”
“Life support. Atmosphere, temperature control, pressurization.”
“Exactly. Everything we need to stay alive.”
“Are you trying to say what I think you’re trying to say?”
“We are being kept here and kept alive.”
“That’s a bit of a leap, but you're scaring me.”
"It's too coincidental. It can't be by chance!"
For a moment, I did not want to accept what he was proposing. Abruptly, a new wave of fear flushed through me. The truth was knocking at the door like the grim reaper
He leaned forward. "It's worse than you think. Assume that someone is attempting to trap us here. Where do you think they are right this minute?"
"There are only two ships anywhere in scanner range. There is nobody next door that we know. Are you trying to say we've been boarded?"
"Yes!"
"How? We'd have seen any hatch opening or any tampering with the habitat module. Alarms would have gone off everywhere."
R.J. leaned further forward and narrowed his stare. "Unless it was a hatch that was supposed to be open. Tell me what happened when you opened and closed the outer door on the airlock during the EVA."
"You know I can't remember that."
"Precisely. And what an odd coincidence both your memory and the camera views are lost. You were the last in line. You closed the outer door. Everyone else was halfway to the other ship before you caught up. Why were you so late?"
"So you are hypothesizing that as we left the airlock, someone else went in."
"Then the convenient accident on the other ship. It caused a mad panic in the airlock when you returned. A dozen people were scrambling in and out of there. No one paid any attention to anything but the injured. They could have hidden and waited for the right moment to leave."
"Hid where?"
"In the unused emergency spacesuits hooked to the side wall."
"Their spacesuits would have had to fit inside ours."
"Yes."
"Okay, some of this is hard to swallow, but I admit it fits our situation in an extreme kind of way. But, we did just have a depressurization problem.”
He looked surprised. "Which one?"
"The B-deck hangar bay. We were supposed to put the scouts out. The system refused the commands to do it."
"Of course. They don't want us pushing away. They have us right where they want us."
"Jesus, R.J.!"
"So assume somebody is on board. What's the first thing they mess with? How about the ship's net? They learn who's who, and everything they need to know about us. Remember how terminals were coming on by themselves? So what do they do next? Who do they go after? How about the head of Security?"
"Why hasn't anyone seen them?"
"I don't know, but not everything they've done has worked. They're not infallible. The cool down that almost happened in Main Engineering. It takes someone with an access code and the proper keyboard entries to make that happen. The two guys who were fighting over nothing were just a distraction to allow that happen to happen. If the heater core had cooled, we would've been stuck here for a long time. It didn't work."
"And the loss of gravity?"
"Can't go anywhere without gravity to compensate for acceleration. Plus it creates a hell of a lot of confusion. No deaths, though. They want us alive."
I rubbed my forehead. “You can sure weave a story, R.J.”
"Please disprove what I'm saying, Adrian. I do not relish the idea we are now someone's property."
I leaned back and exhaled. "R.J., how do you come up with these complex little gems? It's like you took a dozen unrelated events and created a bizarre explanation to connect them!"
"Prove me wrong. I beg you!"
I shook myself out of it and looked at the Life Sciences icon still flashing. I held up one hand to R.J. and tapped the open key. "Tarn here, sorry to keep you holding for so long."
"Commander, this is Dr. Leadstrom. Originally we called to tell you we were about to attempt the inward scan you requested, but we've just completed it. Sorry, but there's been a bit of a glitch. We thought we had the data translation program worked out, but there's an error somewhere, probably in the software conversion program. It'll take some time to sort out."
"Did you get any data at all?"
"That's what I'm saying, Commander. We've got data, but it’s obviously wrong. We’re counting echoes or something. We show 155 life forms on board, and we know there can only be 150. It has to be a line in the software. We're working on it. Shouldn't take long."
Stunned, I turned to find R.J, staring at me wide-eyed. He was drumming the fingers of one hand on his printout and nodding. I looked back at the screen and tried to appear unaffected. "Keep working on it, let me know before you attempt another scan, and please send me the data from the current scan right away."
"Roger, Leadstrom out."
R.J. continued to twitch nervously. "Adrian, what are you going to do?"
"I know what I'd like to do, round up the sons-of-bitches and have them vacuum packed."
He exhaled deeply and slumped back. "Don't expect them to make it easy."