Chapter 32
John Doe
As soon as he walked into the main section of engineering, Parka snapped up at his side. His Chief Engineer glanced quickly towards Evelyn, maybe let her eyes flicker down Evelyn's long figure, gave a chuckle, winked at John, and finally got to work.
‘We’ve completed a thorough scan of the ship. And it is just as I told you over the comlink. We have salt everywhere. And from the specific chemical analysis, I can confirm that it has come from Orion Minor.’
John frowned powerfully, shrugging his arms and closing them around his middle. ‘But that doesn't confirm that she is on board, does it?’
He needed something more. Sure, his hopes were high, but until Parka pointed out the exact corner that the elusive woman in the hood was hiding behind, John was going to play it cool.
‘Okay, sure, I can't confirm that she was on board or even if she is still currently on board; whoever stuffed with our scanners did an incredibly good job of it.’
‘How long until they are up?’ he began.
Parka put up one of her stocky hands in a second, her fingers spreading wide. ‘We are onto it. It was our first priority. And this time we’re not going to take any chances. I have personally placed guards at every single ICN terminal, I'm keeping the computer on high alert, and every single access, no matter where it is on the ship or who it comes from, I am keeping a personal eye on. If she is on board, we will find her, no matter how sophisticated she is,’ Parka said under her breath, her expression slackening for a moment.
John could tell that his Chief Engineer was impressed. Incredibly angry that her own personal ship had been messed with, but nonetheless impressed at what this woman had been able to do.
If, of course, it had been her.
Keeping his arms still crossed firmly in front of his chest, John nodded towards the console before them. ‘You said something about my room?’ He raised an eyebrow.
Parka clapped her hands together, all 20 of her fingers wriggling over each other. Then she cracked her knuckles, and got to work on the console, her digits moving faster than John could comprehend.
In a second, a perfectly formed hologram appeared in the center of the massive circular console that the Chief was working on.
John recognized the display instantly; it was of an empty elevator shaft.
He frowned. The move snapped and impossible to stop. ‘What the hell caused that?’ He said as he leaned in, planting a hand on the console and getting as close to the hologram as he could.
The blue image flickered before him as John leaned in, his own personal bio signature interfering with the matrix, but he didn't care.
What the hell was happening to his ship?
‘It must be a robot,’ Evelyn said suddenly from behind him.
John had almost forgotten she was there. And he did the courtesy of turning to her and nodding, just to acknowledge that she'd spoken. But he had no doubt in his mind that that was not the handy work of a robot.
‘We have certain fields in place within each of our service tunnels and elevator shafts,’ Parka said as she cleared her throat, her voice slowing down as her words became much more audible. It was obvious Parka thought Evelyn was going to have trouble keeping up. ‘As soon as we figured we might have a security problem on board, they snapped into place. They stop synthetic forms of life by way of a restriction field. We basically pump the entire thing full of neuro blocking gas that prevents their electronic pathways from communicating,’ Parka began.
Evelyn gave a quick nod. ‘I took basic engineering,’ she said carefully, possibly not trying to be rude. ‘But my point is, not every kind of robot out there will be stopped by a field like that.’
Parka shrugged her shoulders, the move was a strong one considering how stout and sturdy her race was. ‘True, but we have absolutely no indication that anything that sophisticated is on board or has been on board. Plus those kind of robots are so rare that you wouldn't waste one on a mission like this. There's nothing on the Pegasus worth going after.’
John watched carefully as Evelyn stiffened up, her cheeks suddenly paling.
It made his brow buckle from confusion.
‘I wouldn't rule it out is all I'm saying,’ Evelyn managed eventually. There was a certain tone to her voice, and John didn't know what it meant, but it made him damn suspicious.
‘The Chief is right, nobody is going to waste a robot like that, there's only got to be a handful of them in this entire galaxy, and the Union tends to keep a pretty close eye on them,’ John said as he locked a hand over is chin and began to run it along his jaw.
Again Evelyn seemed to be holding something back. She had her hands primly and tightly clutched before her, one thumb rubbing over the other quickly. ‘Maybe you should talk to the Admiral about it then,’ she said quietly.
Parka shot John a long look, and John could see that his Chief Engineer was just as suspicious as he was.
Clearing his throat, John figured they had other priorities for now though. ‘Get back to the thing about the salt, I take it it's through the elevator shaft, concentrated on any damage made to the panels?’
Parka nodded emphatically. ‘You bet it is. In fact, and this is where it gets interesting, I have been able to track a path. Someone has obviously pulled themselves out of the service tunnels near the engine core, run along one of the corridors, jumped into the elevator shaft, climbed all the way to the top, and then, I'm sorry to inform you, Commander, they've gone into your own quarters.’
‘Hold on, if you are concluding this based on the fact that there are salt traces unique from Orion Minor, aren't you forgetting that John was there too?’ Evelyn suddenly jumped in.
It was a good point, but no doubt one that John's Chief Engineer would already have thought of.
Parka raised an eyebrow, and maybe she tried to give a friendly smile, but it was far too toothy. Parka, after all, did not like to have her authority questioned. She did, of course, love to question absolutely everybody else's, but when it came to engineering competency, you would have to be out of your mind to suggest Parka was anything but the best Chief Engineer in the Union.
‘Of course I thought of that,’ Parka managed, her voice terse, ‘but John wouldn't have had any salt on him. He'd worn his armor the entire time down there, and when he got back to the ship, the computer broke it down. Any salt traces in his bedroom didn't come from him. They came from our little visitor.’
It was Evelyn's turn to cross her own arms, but it was an elegant, somewhat softer move. ‘What exactly are you saying? I read the report from Orion Minor. Though this woman seems intriguing, are you suggesting that she managed to steal aboard the Pegasus, somehow outsmart your security systems, find her way to the Commander's own quarters, and then get off the ship undetected? Because that sounds impossible.’
John put his hand up quickly, a cold and even sweat picking up across his brow. It didn’t just sound impossible, if it was true it was very, very bad. The Pegasus was one of the most advanced vessels in the fleet. Along with its crew, it had been entrusted with one of the most important missions in the Union for the year, possibly even the century. And yet here it was unable to defend itself from a simple woman in a blue hood.
‘I’m going to go up to my own quarters and scan them myself,’ John suddenly decided, figuring that it was better to do whatever he could now and deal with the consequences and the Admiral’s ire later. ‘Parka, keep checking through the ICN, I want to be damn sure that whoever messed with it didn’t leave us any surprises.’
John half turned on his foot, getting ready to storm out of the engineering room, through the corridors, up to the lift, and finally clap eyes on his room.
Evelyn stepped forward quickly, bringing her hands behind her back as she did, looking exactly like a new recruit. ‘If you’ll allow me access to the ICN, I’ll double-check through the records of what occurred on Orion Minor to see if I can help. I read your personal log,’ she said,
and maybe her cheeks blushed a little at the admission, ‘and I know you mentioned the suspicion that the hood that woman wore may be Old Tech. I could help you try to find out.’
John was about to tell Evelyn to relax and leave this to his crew, but he couldn’t, could he? Because in several hours Evelyn would be his crew, and he had to start relying on her at some point.
So with a short nod he agreed. Then he whirled on his foot and headed for the door. ‘Get to work, people,’ he added just as the metallic doors shut with a hiss behind him.
Then, within half a minute, John was standing in his own quarters. All it took was a short walk down the corridor to the closest elevator, and then within a second it arrived at its destination.
As soon as the doors pinged open and John walked out onto the soft carpet of his own room, his eyes narrowed.
Immediately he darted his gaze over everything, from the junk littered over the table to his bed in the far corner.
Ostensibly nothing had changed; there were no holes, the windows weren’t broken, and as far as he could tell, nobody had been sleeping in his bed.
Still, John was on guard as he moved slowly through the room, and maybe for a second his hand hesitated towards the holster on his side. Even though there wasn’t even a gun in it; there had been no point to arming himself when he had walked around the promenade with Evelyn.
But nothing jumped out of the shadows and gobbled John down; his room was abandoned.
Eventually stopping when he was in the center, a good few meters from his bed, John looked up to see the startling view from his bedroom windows. It was one of the best perks of being the commander; having the top room of the ship meant that John saw the galaxy in a way few others would ever have the opportunity to do. As he lay in his bed after a shift, with his hands tucked neatly behind his head, he could stare up at the stars rushing past, the galaxies, the gas clouds, the planets, and right now the thin atmosphere leading up to space above.
‘Don’t get distracted, buddy,’ John said under his breath. And with that he returned his vision back down.
And that’s when he saw it. Out of the corner of his eye.
It was missing.
John launched himself forward, his footfall frantic, until he reached a hand out and grabbed up the empty stand on his bedside table.
It was missing.
His orb.
John’s hand actually gave a shake, and he knew that his expression would be a completely shocked one.
He’d had it for years. Ever since he had found it in the slums of earth, it had never left John’s side. It had been a constant companion. Regardless of the fact it was a small chunk of smooth metal, John had been attached to it just like you might a pet or a friend.
And now it was bloody gone.
Breathing harshly through his teeth, John took several steps back, not caring that his stance was wobbly, his legs feeling jellylike.
Now this was personal, wasn’t it?
Gritting his teeth, locking his jaw, shifting back several more steps, John shook his head harshly.
Eventually he whirled on his foot and headed back to the elevator. If he had been determined before to find this woman, it was nothing compared to what John felt now. As he opened his eyes, settling his gaze on the electronic panel of the elevator, he tried to compose himself.
It wasn’t often that you were handed a second chance in life. John was going to grab this one. He was going to track her down, find out her secret, pull the hood from her head, and bloody demand his orb back all at the same time.
Straightening up, John snapped out of the elevator as soon as it landed on the command deck. Patting down on his uniform, he got ready to rally the troops.