Malfunction, page 5
It looked like if Caldwell had made any notes, then they’d blown up with him.
“Okay. We can cross that off the list.” She headed for the door, and he followed. “Let’s go find the captain and put in a request of transport to the Trakis Three.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Though he had an idea that the captain wasn’t going to think it a particularly good one.
They found Captain Stevens on the bridge, talking with Pryce. They both turned as they entered, and they both frowned as they took in Katia at his side, her hands thrust into her pockets.
As they came to a halt in front of the captain, Logan saluted—he was guessing the captain was into that sort of stuff. “Ma’am. Allow me to introduce you to Detective Mendoza.”
The captain’s frown deepened, but she finally nodded, gave a forced smile, and waved a hand at Pryce. “And this is Major Pryce, my second-in-command.”
Pryce didn’t even attempt to hide his expression of disbelief as he stared down at Katia. Clearly, he was unimpressed. Was it her size, her ripped shirt, or maybe just the fact that she was a woman when he’d been expecting a man? The major spent a long time staring at her breasts, no doubt to make sure she really was a woman, and Logan had to fight back the urge to punch the asshole on the nose.
It didn’t seem to bother the detective at all; she stood with a serene smile on her face.
“Scientific Officer Langdon has already spoken to us,” the captain said. “She expressed some concern as to your plan to visit the Trakis Three.”
Logan opened his mouth to answer, but Katia beat him to it. “That’s so sweet. But as you appointed us to investigate this case, captain, you must allow us to use our expertise, and I believe we might find some answers on the Trakis Three.”
“What if there are no answers?”
“Then we’ll be sure to include that in our reports.”
The captain was frowning again. Logan was guessing she hadn’t had to deal with anyone like Katia since she’d woken up on the Trakis One. People got too used to everyone agreeing with them just because they wore a green shirt.
“I was presuming you’d look over the incident logs and come to the right conclusion.”
“And that would be?” Katia asked.
“That this was a one off—”
“Ten, actually,” she interrupted.
Logan tightened his lips to stop himself smiling. Katia was fearless. He liked that.
“It was a system malfunction,” Pryce ground out. “Everything has been checked, and it is highly unlikely to happen again.”
“Then no harm in us asking a few questions.”
The captain turned to Logan. He was going to be put on the spot, and he didn’t want to be on the spot. He didn’t want to make waves.
“And you, sergeant?” she asked. “Do you think this trip to the Trakis Three holds any merit?”
Obviously, they were expecting a negative, and it hovered on his lips. But he hesitated. Both the captain and Pryce were staring at him as though they could will the correct answer from his lips. He flashed a glance at Katia, and she raised a brow as if in challenge. Still, he hesitated.
Balls.
The army was his life. It had given him his first real home. His first feeling of belonging. But he didn’t belong. He’d known that for a long time, he’d just gotten good at pretending. Maybe he didn’t belong anywhere. So he’d kept his head down and his thoughts to himself, because it was the only home he had. And he’d never been much of an investigator, because most of the time he knew the answer he was expected to come up with and didn’t look any further. That was the way things were if you wanted to fit in.
Now, if he sided with Detective Mendoza, he’d be going against the captain’s and Pryce’s obvious wishes, no doubt gaining himself a black mark.
But they were on a spaceship in the middle of nowhere. A spaceship rapidly disintegrating around them. Soon there would likely be nothing left and nowhere to belong. So why should he give a shit?
Besides, he really wanted to ride in that pretty little shuttle, and this might be his one chance. How to do that without pissing off the people that mattered? Because he wasn’t quite ready to burn all his bridges just yet. He wondered whether he could get away with saying God had told him to visit the Trakis Three. Maybe not.
He set his face into a serious, investigator expression and gave a solemn nod. “I believe that if we want to show the rest of the fleet that we’ve covered all the bases, done everything we can to ensure the safety of the Chosen Ones, then we need to visit the place this all began. The Trakis Three.” He glanced sideways at Katia and gave her a wink. And received another eye roll.
“That’s all very well, but it will take up valuable resources. We need to keep the shuttles for emergency use only.”
What sort of an emergency would a shuttle solve millions of miles from nowhere?
“That’s no problem, ma’am,” Katia said. “The captain on the Trakis Two has said the shuttle I arrived on is at my disposal for the duration of the investigation. Though I will need someone to reprogram it for a flight to the Trakis Three.” She smiled, gracious in victory.
The captain swallowed, her eyes shifting around the room as if searching for some other reason to say no. Finally, her shoulders slumped. “Major Pryce, would you see that the shuttle is reprogrammed?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He sounded like the words would choke him.
…
Katia was impressed. She’d thought the investigation was over and there was no way they were getting to the Trakis Three. Then Logan had given his covering all bases and safety of the Chosen Ones speech. “I’ve got to say, you’re pretty good at this,” she said.
While Pryce prepped the shuttle, they were heading over to talk to the systems analyst who had discovered the malfunction on the Trakis Two during the routine audit. And to the ship’s systems specialist who had been running the investigation into the malfunctions and could hopefully access the central database and get them information on the victims.
Logan glanced at her, one eyebrow raised. She’d always been impressed by people who could do that. She’d had to practice for years before her eyebrows obeyed. “This?” he asked.
“Kissing ass. Saying what they want to hear.”
“I’ve been in the military for fifteen years. It took me a while, but I got there in the end. And actually, it’s not that hard. Especially officers. They’re usually easy. They just want to cover their asses. The secret is, never let them know what you’re really thinking.”
Yeah, Logan was definitely good at that. She had no clue what he was really thinking. She wondered who he was when he forgot to act the textbook soldier. She reckoned he’d perfected his act. The big tough soldier. Worked hard and played hard and always did his duty.
“You don’t sound like you have a very high opinion of officers. Or the military in general. Why did you stay?”
He shrugged. “Nowhere else to go.”
“Aw, that’s sort of sad.”
“Yeah, a total tragedy. But,” he continued, “it’s as good as anywhere else. And it got me a place on the ship, so it saved my life. In some ways, it’s not a bad life. And maybe it will be better if we ever get to that new world. Hopefully, we’ll have left a lot of the old crap behind.”
She snorted. “You really believe that?”
He glanced at her. “Why not?”
“You can come out of that meeting with Captain Antiquated and Major Creepy Misogynist and say we left the shit behind? Hell, we’re taking it with us. Probably in a more concentrated form. Actually, we’re not even taking it—it’s leading us.”
“You’re a cynic.”
“Oh, yeah. And you’re not, Mr. Tell-them-what-they-want-to-hear? Except you didn’t. Because I’m guessing what they wanted to hear was: yes sir, it was definitely a system malfunction, sir, and it’s been fixed, and it won’t happen again, sir.”
“Ah, that’s where the problems arise. When what you want is at obvious odds with what they want. In this case, they don’t want us to visit the Trakis Three, but I want to ride in a shuttle. The thing is to understand what they want more than that. And in this case, it’s being seen to do everything they can before they admit it’s nothing but a malfunction that they’ve fixed. I’m guessing morale throughout the fleet is low.”
“We’ll no doubt find out once we start talking to people,” she said.
They arrived at the Tech Center. Logan placed his palm on the panel. He’d been given the freedom of the ship. She hadn’t. God knew what havoc a civilian would cause if given the freedom to go anywhere. She might see something she shouldn’t. Though she doubted it. They were so by-the-book it was unbelievable.
She was hungry again. It was making her grumpy. And deep inside, she could sense her cat stretching. Sometime soon, she needed to shift, and she wasn’t sure how that was going to work. She reached into her bag and pulled out another protein bar.
Jake, the analyst, was an African American, slightly overweight, and wearing a blue shirt. Anna, the systems specialist, was a white woman in her fifties or sixties, also in blue. They were both very helpful, probably happy to talk to someone new.
“So right now,” Katia said, taking a seat opposite them while Logan wandered around the room, inspecting all the instruments and flashing lights, “we only have the cryotube numbers of the victims. We were told you could give us the corresponding names and any information available on them.”
Jake shook his head. “Not possible.”
“Why is that?”
“Well, there should be a central database here on the Trakis One, but it’s—”
“Malfunctioned?” Katia suggested. She was seeing a pattern here.
“Yes. Among other things, that was the information Caldwell was going to get when he visited the Trakis Two. While the central database can’t be accessed because of the malfunction, the individual ships should be able to access their own data from their backup files.”
Katia made a note to ask Rico to get the information on the victims from the Trakis Two and put in a request to the other ships to send their information. They could get the names and details of those who had died on the Trakis Three when they visited.
“There seem to be a lot of malfunctions on the ships,” she said. “Is that…normal?”
“Considering the fleet is five hundred years old, yes, I think a few malfunctions are expected.” Anna sounded defensive. Probably thought they were trying to pin the blame on someone.
“How’s morale?” Katia asked when they finished the questions.
“Morale?” The woman looked surprised. “As good as can be expected when you have thirty or so people shut up together in a confined space for years on end. But I’ve not noticed anyone so bad that they’re at the point of murdering people for entertainment.”
“Hah,” Katia said. “I’ve only been on board a couple of hours, and I’ve already got a list of people I wouldn’t mind bumping off.” But that was the people who were awake. Not the sleeping ones. And she’d never been known for her tolerance. But how much could someone in cryo piss anyone off? Certainly not enough to want to murder them. Did that mean whoever had killed them knew them from before, from back on Earth?
“We all have family with the fleet,” Anna said. “That’s a strong motivation to keep going.”
“Your families are on the Trakis One?”
“No, all crew families were positioned on different ships than where the crew member would serve.”
Interesting. Perhaps that was done so there would be more unity among the fleet. The crew would look out for all the ships.
“Mine are on the Trakis Two,” Anna said.
Were they? Katia didn’t know whether Rico had included crew members in the people he had replaced. But she thought not. She glanced at Jake, but he didn’t add anything. And she looked back at Anna.
“Jake’s are on the Trakis Three,” she said. “I hear you’re heading over there.”
“We are. We’ll make sure to say hi.” She pushed herself to her feet. Time to go.
“Well, that was no use at all,” Logan murmured as she passed him.
He was right.
Maybe it was a technical glitch after all.
Everyone, including Rico, would likely be glad if she came up with that conclusion. Maybe she should give them what they wanted. Though that went against every detective cell in her body. And certainly not until she’d done a bit more whizzing about in space. And after that, then what? Would she go back to sleep? Not without a fight. The trip was clearly doomed. It had always been a long shot. Heading out into the unknown. No destination, just the hope that they would hit somewhere that could offer a home to humanity in all the enormity of space. So no way was she spending the last years of her life fast asleep. Rico would have to live with her decision. Or force her back into cryo. But why would he? The ship was big enough that she could avoid Rico. There were books, movies, virtual reality games. She could keep herself occupied.
As she reached the door, something beeped.
“Lunch time,” Anna said.
She turned back. “Really?”
“We maintain a twenty-four hour daily routine, similar to Earth, across the fleet,” Anna said. “Obviously, there’s no night and day, but the daily cycle is considered the healthiest for humans.”
Made sense. Though she doubted Rico bothered with anything so mundane as a daily routine.
Katia glanced at the comm unit on her wrist. They still had an hour before the shuttle would be ready. All right, then. Time to eat. She turned to Logan. “Lunch?”
“Are you asking me on a date?”
“Hell, no.”
“Lunch it is, then.”
Chapter Seven
God, the woman could eat.
Logan cast her a sideways glance. She seemed a little happier since she’d had more food. Positively jaunty.
As if sensing his gaze, she glanced up at him. “What?”
“Just impressed with your stamina.” She’d eaten twice as much as him and she was half the size.
“I told you—I have a fast metabolism.”
Layla had been at lunch, though they hadn’t had a chance to talk and she had left before him, giving him a nod as she walked out.
Now they were heading back to the docking bay. They’d had word from Pryce that the shuttle was ready. Logan’s gut was churning. He wasn’t sure whether it was excitement, fear, or the result of his first meal in five hundred years. Probably a little of all three.
He was heading into space. On a five-hundred-year-old shuttle. No doubt similar to the one Caldwell had been in when it exploded. Not a comforting thought, but also not enough to dampen his anticipation.
And he was going with a woman he didn’t 100 percent trust, and he had no clue why.
There was something not quite right about her, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
Logan usually had a feel for people; he could sense whether they were good or bad, whether they were telling the truth or lying. It was something he never spoke about, had tried to banish. As a young child, desperately trying to fit in—and usually failing—he hadn’t wanted some stupid sixth sense, so he’d learned to ignore it, to mute the information that fed to his mind. Then, as a teenager, he’d had a therapist who’d suggested he was some sort of empath—able to read other people’s emotions. But so what? Now he’d gotten to the point where only the most obvious of emotions got through. Layla, for instance, was transmitting clear as a comm. She was…nice. She wanted to help.
But from Detective Mendoza, he was picking up zero. As though she was a blank screen, with nothing behind it. And he couldn’t shake the idea that she was, if not outright lying, at the least hiding something from him.
He just couldn’t work out what.
He was certain she was telling the truth about just waking up. Everything was clearly new to her. She had no clue how anything worked and asked endless questions. Unless she was a good actor. Though he didn’t think she would have the self-control.
She had an issue with authority and no worries about showing it.
In fact, all in all, she was quite refreshing.
No doubt he’d have time on the shuttle to ask a few questions, find out more about his new partner. The trip would take a little over thirty minutes to travel the hundred miles between the ships. The fleet was relatively close together at the moment, but apparently this was the nearest the ships ever got to one another. They were vast and unwieldy, so it was considered dangerous to get any closer. The head engineer had explained it to him over lunch. The crew all seemed eager to help. Or maybe they were bored and happy to have someone different to talk to.
When they reached the docking bay doors, he pressed his palm to the panel. Nothing happened. Balls. He drew back his fist and punched the panel. The door opened a little bit, enough to pry his fingers into the gap and pull them apart.
“That’s sort of worrying,” Katia said as she stepped through.
“I’m trying not to think about it.”
They retraced their steps from earlier and finally came to a halt in front of the shuttle. “Beautiful, isn’t she?” Katia said with a sigh.
He was about to answer when the shuttle door slid open and Pryce appeared. He wasn’t alone. Layla was beside him, their heads close together, talking quietly. They walked down the ramp side by side, stopped talking as they caught sight of the two of them. Layla sent him an easy smile as they came to a halt at the foot of the ramp.
