‘Prepare to go down to Oceane,’ she replied and then forced a smile to reassure him. ‘You may have to take charge on this one, Leal. Lucian is going to be devastated for quite some time, I would think.’
Leal nodded as Kassa entered the lift down to the middle modules, where, the medical chamber was located.
‘Do not mention what you know about Amie to anyone,’ she advised him as the lift doors began to close. ‘Her death was no accident.’
Leal was stunned speechless and by the time he found his voice, it was too late to question the doctor.
Kassa paged Aurora and asked her to have the captain meet her in her consultation rooms as soon as possible. Lucian arrived shortly after she did.
‘Please tell me you have good news.’
The captain was looking very tired and Kassa felt her report could well send him spiralling into a nervous breakdown. ‘I have some good news…Zeven and Taren have made contact and they are both alive and well.’
‘That’s fantastic!’ Lucian’s heavy cloud lifted momentarily, until he noted Kassa remained sombre. ‘But?’ he asked more wearily.
‘They found the missing pod, Lucian, and Amie’s body was inside.’
Lucian was alarmed to hear his wife referred to as ‘a body’.
‘It is as Taren foresaw.’ Lucian’s eyes widened in horror. Kassa struggled to deliver the crushing blow. ‘We have good reason to believe that your wife was murdered.’
Lucian began choking at the shock of this news, his utter desolation so intense that Kassa’s heart went out to him in empathy and she began to weep.
Her tears were not for Aime, however. Kassa had never held any love for the woman. Unlike everybody else, Kassa was not fooled by Amie’s warm, bubbly, innocent exterior. She had known that Amie Gervaise was a far more treacherous creature than everyone realised. Still, as she was now dead, perhaps Lucian would never need to know what his wife had been up to behind his back. Kassa fully expected it was Amie’s underhanded dealings that had led to her death.
‘I am so sorry, Lucian.’ She took a seat beside her long-time colleague and held the man as he collapsed in tears.
After a while, when the full implications had sunk in, Lucian regained his sensibilities and dried his eyes. ‘So there is a murderer on board our craft,’ he concluded, his voice filled with venom.
‘Leal and I will quietly coordinate this rescue,’ Kassa said to prevent Lucian feeling any more overwhelmed than he already was. ‘If we can keep our recent discoveries secret until everyone is safely back on board, it could make it easier to seek out and surprise the person responsible for Amie’s death.’
Lucian nodded, seeing sense in her words.
‘You should lie down—’
‘I am not going to lie down,’ he insisted, swallowing his grief to rise and get involved. ‘I’ll fly the salvage—’
‘You most definitely will not,’ Kassa asserted. ‘In your current depleted state you’ll kill somebody.’
‘How did she die, Kassa?’ Lucian demanded to know, hysteria not far from the surface.
Kassa had feared it would come to this and pulled a syringe full of sedative from her pocket. ‘Sorry, my friend…’ She injected Lucian and when he began to stagger she assisted him to the lounge where he promptly passed out.
Kassa paged Aurora. ‘Our captain is out of commission for a little while. Please advise anyone seeking him that he will be unavailable for the next ten hours.’
‘What has happened?’ Aurora queried.
‘He’s getting some much-needed rest.’ Kassa felt that was explanation enough.
‘So with Amie missing, Leal flying salvage, and Zeven still absent—although found, yay!—who is in charge? You?’
‘I’m a little tied up right now.’ Kassa remembered she had to go and speak with their sample.
‘Shall I page Dr Portus up from the Marine Department?’
‘No, let’s not involve the other departments at this stage,’ Kassa recommended. ‘You be captain for this shift.’
‘Cool. I’m on it!’
Kassa had to smile at the girl’s excited enthusiasm. Aurora was blissfully unaware of all the tragedy and treachery unfolding around her, and that was best for now.
‘Where will you be?’
‘Incommunicado.’ Kassa switched off her communicator and made for Taren’s quarantine lab with great haste.
When Leal entered the flight deck to find Kassa at the communicator having a hushed conversation, he was immediately intrigued. ‘Anything I should know about?’
Kassa was startled and did an about-face. ‘You gave me a start.’ She held a hand to her chest to calm herself. ‘It’s Taren,’ she advised. ‘She has spoken with the entity and the porthole is open for you.’
‘We’re running out of daylight hours.’ Leal was a little suspicious at Kassa’s jittery reaction. ‘By the time we leave the surface of the planet, we’ll be flying in darkness.’
‘Actually, you’ll be flying in in darkness,’ Kassa replied, to Leal’s initial horror. ‘You see, the tundrells—the plants that caused Taren and Zeven to crash—curl into a passive state at night, and so will not hinder your rescue.’
Leal smiled and frowned at once, intrigued by her as always. ‘How very well informed you are. Been here chatting for a while, have you?’
Kassa gave a nod. ‘The entity shall light your way through.’
‘Tell Taren I dig this whole inter-dimensional extra-terrestrial communication thing she has going on…but at the first sign of a tentacle, I am opening fire,’ Leal said with good humour. ‘I’m sending Bonar up to man the control deck.’ Leal backed up to admire the good doctor before he turned and made for the launch bay hangar.
‘Right you are.’ Kassa gave him the thumbs-up and a wave. ‘Fly safe.’
As Leal departed he felt something wasn’t right with Kassa. She was always so laidback and calm…perhaps the pressure was getting to her? ‘Are you all right?’ he turned back to inquire. Her forced smile and insistent nod did nothing to convince him. ‘Is there something you want to tell me?’
Kassa looked rather startled by his question and Leal smiled, knowing he’d hit the nail right on the head.
‘Now is not the time,’ she said quickly.
‘When I return, perhaps?’ he suggested calmly, inwardly excited to have a reason, apart from an ailment, to see her.
‘When the smoke from today has cleared,’ she suggested, more aware of the time damage control for the past few days might take.
‘At your leisure then.’ He tossed the ball into her court and left to be about the business of salvaging their craft and crew.
The salvage mission lasted most of the night, and when everyone arrived back on AMIE they were completely exhausted. Aurora was the only admin person waiting to greet them upon their return.
‘Welcome back!’ she said in a cheery tone, which quickly faded when she saw the loaded body bag that the crew were pulling from the craft. ‘Who is that?’ she queried Taren and Leal, the first to exit the craft, fearing it was Zeven.
‘It’s Amie,’ Zeven said as he stepped out of the vehicle.
Aurora was completely blindsided by the news, which hid how ecstatic she was to see the young pilot. He’d never know how worried she’d been about him. ‘How? What’s going on?’
Zeven held up a hand, in no state to deal with one of Aurora’s inquisitions, and bypassed her to speak with Taren, who was handing over a bunch of samples to Ringbalin.
‘I even got you a seedling.’ Taren held up a sealed jar filled with soil, out of which sprouted a tundrell. ‘It’s a—’
‘Tundrell,’ Ringbalin interrupted, smiling broadly. ‘I’ve heard talk of these being discovered elsewhere in the galaxy, but I’ve never actually seen one up close.’ He lowered his glasses down his nose to inspect the specimen. ‘I’ve got a greenhouse in quarantine and finally I’ll get to utilise it,’ he told her, inspired. ‘Thanks for thinking of me. This is b
eyond expectations.’
‘You’re most welcome,’ Taren assured him. ‘As soon as I smelt the air and saw the vegetation, I knew you’d appreciate…’
Zeven, who was standing back a bit, waiting patiently to have a word, didn’t like how friendly Taren seemed to be with the gardener. He’d never had much to do with Ringbalin, but the few women on board AMIE all seemed to adore him. The very gorgeous and mysterious Dr Ayliscia Portus from the Marine Department, for one, was constantly seen coming and going from his greenhouse in Module C. He couldn’t understand what women saw in the scruffy, tree-hugging recluse. Zeven decided to tap Taren on the shoulder.
‘I’ll catch you in the office.’ Ringbalin placed the seedling sample in his quarantine trolley with the other soil, air and water samples Taren had collected for him and wheeled the lot away.
‘What’s up?’ Taren turned to Zeven, already knowing what was on his mind, but since leaving the surface of Oceane her passion for the young pilot had cooled, as expected.
‘We need to talk,’ he said quietly. ‘Please.’
‘There is nothing to discuss,’ she whispered back. ‘Like I told you, it was just…something in the air, and Ringbalin will surely prove that.’
‘It’s more than that, and you know it,’ he challenged playfully.
‘No, I do not. Under normal circumstances, I would never act like that in a professional situation.’ She wanted him to understand that, as it was the truth.
‘I accept that.’ Zeven was also not feeling quite as obsessed as he had been only hours before. ‘But don’t write me off just because I let things get a bit out of hand when I shouldn’t have.’
Taren found it rather sweet that he was prepared to admit fault, but the truth was she was too tired to discuss this right now.
‘You’re stuffed, I know that. I am too,’ he added, frustrated, ‘but can I call you later?’
Taren, too exhausted to argue, nodded agreement.
‘Thanks.’ His dimple flashed as he grinned. ‘Great job today.’ His voice resumed normal volume. ‘See you in debriefing.’
Taren watched him depart, wondering what the hell she was going to do about him, when her gaze drifted back to their rescue vessel beside which Aurora stood, staring at her with daggers in her eyes. Oh no. ‘Rory…’ Taren knew she needed to explain before she made an enemy, but Aurora swiftly exited the hangar. It was clear she was not very receptive at present. ‘Oh…’ Taren groaned to herself. ‘Nuts.’
Taren was desperately in need of sleep, but she was not going to get it. While waiting to be rescued, Taren had employed her psychic skill to extract the identity of Amie’s killer from the corpse.
This skill was a form of psychometry, adepts being able to pick up information from an object about its previous owners, or from a person, animal, plant or even a mineral. However, Taren’s grasp of this talent extended only to people, living or recently dead, so her skill in this area was probably related to her clairvoyance rather than being true psychometry but the MSS had found it extremely helpful in solving recent murders. Taren had hated that work. She loved catching the bad guys, making the world a safer place, but she had witnessed many murders, rapes and other violent crimes first-hand. Such scenes never failed to suck the life out of her because she empathised with the victims and, in some cases, the perpetrator.
Witnessing Amie’s brutal murder from the victim’s point of view had been every bit as draining. Taren knew who was responsible; now all she had to do was stay conscious long enough to prove it. She took a step towards the hangar bay doors that led into the rest of the ship but her legs merely wobbled and collapsed beneath her.
‘Dr Lennox?’ she heard Leal call to her, right before she hit the ground.
Into consciousness Taren drifted…it was the voices that woke her.
‘My wife had her throat cut!’ the captain stressed in a whisper. ‘Things began going horribly wrong from the moment Dr Lennox came on board and now you want me to trust some vision that she had!’
‘Shhh, she’ll hear you,’ Kassa insisted, leading him further away from the patient. ‘May I remind you that before we found your missing wife, you were pretty eager to believe in her visions.’
‘You don’t have to trust my vision.’ Taren struggled to a seated position on the bed. She was in sick bay with Kassa and Lucian. ‘I believe I can get the murderer to confess.’
‘Really?’ The captain was feeling slightly remorseful at having voiced his apprehension as he realised Taren was his best chance of getting to the bottom of this tragedy. ‘How?’
‘Hypnotism.’
‘No!’ Lucian flatly refused. ‘I will not have the personal lives of all my crew exposed—’
‘I know who did it…but…’ Taren shook her head to let the captain know she was not going to disclose who she’d seen. ‘I have to confirm—’
‘You will tell me now.’ Lucian, losing his cool, took a step toward Taren.
‘Lucian.’ Kassa drew his attention to the full syringe she held. ‘I know it’s difficult, but keep it professional. You are too personally involved—’
‘I’m good,’ he assured her. ‘However, if you stick me with that needle again, I’ll be looking for a new medical officer.’
‘Don’t make me,’ Kassa cautioned him lightheartedly. They both knew that she had the power to have him relieved of duty.
Taren swung her legs down and slid off the bed to stand up. ‘There is a good possibility that even the murderer doesn’t know they did it. If the agent on this ship can be triggered into action by a code name, like I believe I was, the agent in question will only remember their covert operations under hypnosis. Or in a hyper-conscious state.’
‘If that’s the case,’ Lucian reasoned with Taren, ‘the first person I want hypnotised is you.’
‘Fair enough,’ Taren agreed without question, hating that the man she idolised now thought so little of her as to imagine she’d been involved in the murder of his wife! Well, perhaps she had and it was her perception of events that were skewed? ‘Who shall hypnotise me?’
‘I can do it,’ Kassa offered, even though she knew it was a waste of time. Taren was true to the project, unlike the woman whose death they were investigating.
‘Then feel free to open me up.’ Taren’s eyes turned from Kassa to Lucian. ‘Everyone else has.’ She sat on the bed again.
‘It’s not that I suspect you are a killer, you understand,’ Lucian said, now feeling he’d been too quick in accusing Dr Lennox. ‘As you say, you may subconsciously know more than you realise.’
‘That’s okay.’ The damage was done as far as Taren was concerned. ‘I’m used to being the centre of an interrogation. But I want it taped, so that I can hear the truth from my own mouth.’
‘Of course.’ Lucian wanted to kick himself. He’d promised to always give Taren the benefit of the doubt. Still, this was not a science project they were talking about but cold-blooded murder.
Zeven—fed, showered and changed—was just crawling across his sleeping pod, on the verge of collapsing into it, when his room buzzer rang. ‘This had better be important.’ He dragged himself up and staggered slowly to the door. ‘I’m off duty,’ he grumbled. ‘Unlock,’ he instructed and his chamber door opened. He was neither surprised nor delighted to find Aurora waiting to speak with him. ‘Oh…not now, Rory, I’m real tired—’
‘I know.’ She seemed surprisingly subdued. ‘Dr Lennox is awake and I thought you might want to know.’
‘Well, that’s good news,’ Zeven confirmed, playing dumb and nodding his head vaguely, while Aurora observed him closely. ‘Is there something else?’
It took a moment for her to pluck up the courage to ask, ‘What happened down there, Starman?’
‘We crashed, we found the pod with Amie’s dead body in it and we phoned home.’ He summarised the experience as he had in debrief.
‘I was worried about you,’ she confessed although she knew he wouldn’t give a damn.
/>
‘There was no need.’ He grinned, as he did every time his mind returned to the steamy surface of Oceane.
‘But your head?’ Rory, concerned, moved to touch the patched-up wound, but Zeven gently blocked her touch and shook his head.
‘I’m fine,’ he told her coolly, ‘just very, very tired.’
‘Oh, okay.’ Aurora had promised herself that no matter what he said or did, she wouldn’t cry in front of him or turn nasty. ‘I hope you sleep well,’ she concluded, as lightheartedly as she was able, turned on her heel and did not look back.
Zeven closed the door, and headed back to bed. He mused on Aurora’s agitation as she had left, even though he’d done nothing wrong. Yes, he’d probably just broken her heart, but it wasn’t his fault he was attracted to someone else. He’d never really got close to the girl in the first place and he’d made it clear years ago there was no future for them. So why was she making him feel guilty about this?
‘Arrgh!’ He collapsed backwards onto his sleeping pod and mentally shook off the encounter. ‘I refuse to feel guilty about the most sensational sexual encounter I nearly had.’
Zeven was grinning again, and rolled over into his pillows to indulge in the arousing memory.
CHAPTER 7
INTERROGATION
‘I have acquired a quantity of the original gas sample that was extracted from the anomaly on Oceane, which, from initial observation, Eleazar Kestler suspects to be an infinite source of energy. That being the case, the Master is eager to export the entire sample back to Maladaan, but such a theft will be too obvious. Instead, I extracted only a small amount of the sample to send back to the institute. After all, if each particle of this gas is capable of producing infinite amounts of power, as theorised, the size of the sample is irrelevant.’
‘What is she saying? Who is the Master?’ Lucian queried Kassa. They had asked Taren to tell them what she’d perceived about Amie’s murder and were apparently getting a monologue. ‘Is she claiming Amie stole the sample?’
Kassa raised her brow but said nothing, not wanting to disturb Taren, who was on a roll.