The Loneliness of Stars

  ~Peter Robos, in his personal diary

  Ezekiel didn’t come back to our room that night. I was alone, confined to my own depressing thoughts. I wasn’t trying to unravel any mysteries anymore – I was too lonely and too depressed. Why was Ezekiel so upset that I was spending time with someone else? I was allowed to have friends, yes? Was Vincent gay and I just didn’t know it?

  After several hours of miserable brooding, that was the conclusion I finally reached. Reaching it, however, didn’t make me feel any better. I knew that I wasn’t going to reach any semblance of peace until I tracked down Ezekiel and explained everything to him. Sighing, I stood up and walked in front of the camera. I held up two fingers and carefully counted to five. Then I opened the door, locked it behind me, and set off.

  I knew all of Ezekiel’s hiding places. I immediately took off for the most likely one, near the cargo bay where I had hidden. It was a small storage closet that held some rarely used tools. When I was halfway there, I heard a buzzing noise. I jumped, then looked around wildly. There no rooms to hide in nearby. I swallowed and chose a direction at random (which ended up being forward). I sprinted the rest of the way to the hideout, opened the door, and dove in. I never found out who it was behind me.

  “So you decided to find me? I should have picked somewhere I hadn’t shown you.” I felt someone shove me aside, and Ezekiel opened the door and ran out. A tear slipped from my eye as I took a breath and followed him, not caring who else was nearby, pausing only to close the door behind me.

  I didn’t know which way he went. I decided not to backtrack, so went in the opposite direction of the way I had come. I checked every hideout I knew on the way, avoiding larger rooms for the most part. The cameras only buzzed twice more, and there were nearby empty rooms each time. The second time I caught a glimpse of Ivor through the window of my hiding place. He didn’t appear to be looking for me, but I could never be sure.

  I finally decided to check the main cargo hold, where I had stowed away. I hadn’t been there in a while. When I reached the door, I saw that it was closed. I knew that the door, when closed, locked automatically, and I didn’t have the key. Ezekiel did – I would have bet my life that he was in there. I called his name, begging him to let me talk to him. There was no response.

  After five minutes of pleading, I noticed that the door was actually open a crack. I wondered then why I hadn’t tried opening it earlier, despite it appearing to be closed. I hesitantly pushed it open and stepped in, closing the door behind me.

  I found Ezekiel.

  He was lying spread-eagled on the floor, blood flowing in a stream from a cut in his throat. I barely held back a scream. I ran to him and dropped to my knees, my eyes blurred by the tears pouring down my face. I fell over on my side, letting the grief take me.

  I was brought to reality by a sharp kick in the stomach. Groaning, I rolled over and found myself looking into the eyes of Korzos. “What are you doing out of your room, boy? What have you done?” Every word was soaked with fury. His hands shook with barely restrained rage. “Only yesterday we lost five members of the crew to you, and now another?”

  I then noticed the rest of the crew standing behind him, with shocked looks on their faces. Joseph was in the front. I can’t even describe the look on his face with words, but I could tell that I was dead to him.

  Vincent walked into the room. “Captain?”

  Korzos whirled around, spit flying from the edges of his mouth. “You failed, Vincent! We lost another crewmember, you incompetent bastard!”

  Vincent did not flinch. He stood up straighter. “Captain, sir, Jak did no-”

  The captain stepped towards the chief of security and slammed his fist into Vincent’s face. Vincent staggered backwards, blood pouring out his nose. “You no-good dirty bastard!” Korzos roared. Perversely, I was grateful that his rage was no longer directed at me.

  Vincent straightened, his face completely calm. He smiled cynically. “So it comes to this, captain?” He shook his head. Korzos raised his hand to strike him again, but as his arm descended, Vincent caught it. “Sorry, sir, but I don’t particularly feel like getting hurt again.” He shoved Korzos back. The captain staggered backwards and glared at Vincent, murder in his eyes, while Vincent stared back, a slight smile on his lips.

  “Now that you seem to be in more of a position to listen, I would like to inform you that Jak did not commit the murder. We have it all on the security cameras. I’m surprised that you didn’t disable them first, Captain.” Vincent drew a holographic projector from his pocket. He used it to project an image into the air, visible from all angles. It showed Korzos entering the cargo bay, sneaking up on the sobbing Ezekiel, reaching around him, and slitting his throat. The virtual Korzos then dragged Ezekiel out to where he now lay, then looked up and hid as I walked into the room. I was horrified, but couldn’t look away. A dark beast deep inside me began to claw its way out. I looked at Korzos with hate in my eyes.

  The captain’s face was ashen. Vincent shut off the projector and put it back into his pocket. “Sneaking back past Jak as he was sobbing over Ezekiel’s lifeless corpse mustn’t have been too hard, and rallying the crew against him was probably easier. Who would dare side with the lowly stowaway who was already accused of five murders? What do you have to say for yourself?”

  Silence reigned for what seemed like an eternity. Korzos opened his mouth to speak, but someone else spoke first, her voice filled with cold anger. “I don’t want to hear it – ‘captain.’” I turned my head to see Michaela step through the crowd and draw a tiny pistol from her sleeve. The captain’s eyes went wide as she leveled the weapon at him and twitched her finger. A short black bolt shot from the tip of the gun, and hit Korzos directly between his eyes. He fell to the ground like a limp doll, and did not rise again.

  Vincent glanced at Michaela, who stared back unapologetically. The corner of his mouth twitched. “While rather unorthodox – it had to be done. Even if it was with a non-regulation weapon.”

  She smiled cynically, and the weapon vanished back into her sleeve. “What weapon?”

  Vincent did not reply to her, and turned his attention to the rest of the crew. “I am truly sorry, comrades. Every man was on duty in the booth – we didn’t have time to stop him. It was a foolish mistake that we shall never make again. We’ve been having trouble since we lost Valerius…” He paused for a moment, gathering himself. I felt my anger begin to cool, despite myself, as Vincent spoke.

  “I am sorry to be the bearer of such bad news. Korzos did not just commit this murder. He is responsible for eight murders total.” There were gasps and murmurs from the crew.

  Someone shouted from the back, “But only six have died!”

  Vincent shook his head sadly. “I’m afraid there are more than six dead. There are two you do not know about. You have seen the murder of Ezekiel Yevon, and witnessed the destruction of Peter Robos, Daniel Ironton, Valerius Publiatys, Angela Lorenos, and Henry Mather. But the first murders were those of Uriel Anakos and Abdul al-Jamullah – the two scientists. I am sorry that we have kept this hidden from you, but someone managed to edit the footage of those murders, so we did not at the time know who did it. We kept it secret so that we could get to the bottom of it.”

  Vincent pulled out the projector again. He turned it on, and flipped it to a different scene. It showed Korzos, in his office, typing on a keypad. On the monitor, the words “Override Weapons System?” were just visible. Korzos hit a large button, and the display changed to “Weapons System Override.” A nearby monitor showed a beam shoot from one of the bow guns, hitting the Diplomat shortly afterwards. Vincent shut off the projector.

  “Korzos is responsible for all of the murders on this vessel. I am not entirely sure why, but I suspect he was in the pay of his government to take down this mission. The Bajan government was foolish to allow such an unstable Namibian to lead us.”

  Vincent cleared his throat. “Now, I don’t want to remove you from your
grief so soon, but we have practical matters to deal with. This is a very important expedition, and we need to carry it out and complete its goal. In order to do so, we need a captain. Unfortunately, we lost our mate when Korzos took down the Diplomat. So, an election must be held, as we made no other plans beyond Mather.” He clasped his hands behind his back and began to pace back and forth. “His replacement… will need to be ready for anything. It takes a lot to hold together such a diverse crew, with so few loyalties between its members. This man,” he glanced at Michaela, “or woman will need to be on top of everything, and always know what’s going on. They will need to be just, impartial, and swift to act. They must be sure of their actions, and able to handle almost anything.” He stopped. “Any nominations?”

  Someone in the back shouted, “Vincent!” The crowd took up the cheer. “Vincent! Vincent! Vincent! Vincent!”

  Something in Vincent’s eye gleamed, but it quickly vanished and he smiled abashedly, raising his hand. “Alright. All those in favor of electing me as captain, for whatever reason, say aye.” There was a thunderous round of ayes. “And all in favor of not electing me?”

  A single nay came from the back. Everyone turned to look at him. Ivor Karanov stood there, his head raised defiantly. Vincent nodded to him. “And who do you wish to be captain?”

  Ivor sneered. “Anyone but you.” He spat on the ground and walked out the door. Silence followed his exit.

  Vincent broke it. “Well then. Let’s get back to work, shall we? Fetherkap, Matthias, come up here. You have duties to perform.” Vincent turned to me. “Jak, you can go back to your room. Do you want to pay your last respects to Ezekiel?” I shook my head and stood up. I didn’t think I would be able to stay in the presence of my dead lover for any longer. I walked back to my room without a further word, locked the door, and collapsed onto my bed.

  11

  “He who blends in will be noticed far more than he who stays apart. To an extent, of course.”