Engineering Murder, page 1
Engineering Murder
T S Paul
Table of Contents
Title Page
Legal Stuff
Dedications
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Up Next: Ghost Ships of Terra
Also by T S Paul
Legal Stuff
Copyright © 2016 T.S. Paul, All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction of any kind is strictly prohibited unless written permission granted by the author.
Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
The Athena Lee Chronicles, along with any characres, situations, and worlds are copyright © 2016 by T.S. Paul
Cover designed by Heather Hamilton-Senter
Re-Editing by Diane Velasquez, Dorene Johnson, and Kat Lind
Formatted by Nina Morse
Dedications
Special thanks to my wife Heather who keeps me grounded and to Merlin the Cat, we are his minions.
Chapter 1
I’ve changed my mind about boredom. Being trapped in a small, very small, officer’s quarters is way more boring than being stuck alone for 15 years. Or at least it seems that way to me!
At least I had been rescued. Although, technically, I was still at war with these folks. I sort of did attack them and cause a ship to explode killing the crew. Because of all that, I was being treated as an enemy combatant. It is better than prison though.
So much for my first tour of duty. Here’s what happened.
During my first deployment, we were attacked, the fleet destroyed, I survived. While trying to survive, I built defenses and a small space station. A survey patrol encountered my station fifteen years later.
I did not believe who they were, and a ship was destroyed with all hands lost. The great war I had fought in has been over for a long time.
Nobody had told me that!
I sort of surrendered. Now I was on my way to stand trial or something.
It should be an interesting experience in a twisted sort of way. At least there are snacks.
Still, the boredom.
Officially, they won’t let me have any books. That whole enemy thing. I have two escort guards outside, but other than the observation deck and the mess hall, I don’t get to go anywhere including the engineering library.
Unofficially, I have my own ace in the hole. I was allowed to keep my personal tablet. I already have reams of books and technical manuals. Hidden inside my link, in my head, is a being who has become my own personal AI, Wilson.
Wilson is an Artificial intelligence created by the former Pan-Pacific League. He was the prototype for the AI’s that most navies use today. His creator modeled his personality on a 20th-century vid star named Hank or hankie something or other. He latched on to me after the big battle that got me lost for fifteen years. He’s kind of goofy in a good sort of way.
I let the Admiral and her staff believe that I left Wilson back on the Firefly station. Instead, he uploaded a cloned version of himself in his place, a dumb one according to him. Wilson told me that he needed to be there to ‘drive me around’ or something. Not sure what he means. He is officially a stowaway.
I’m not a hacker, not even a little. I am about the farthest you can get from a computer programmer and still be able to use a computer. Wilson likes to help me out all the time. He cracked the ship’s systems to get me some updated books and tech manuals to read.
I am still trying to understand the motives of these people that have ‘captured’ me. They tell me that my old Navy, the PPL, joined with its mortal enemy the AA and formed an Empire. I don’t understand that at all. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around how the war ended. Wilson has been getting me news reports and such, but it’s all out-of-context, so I don’t actually understand it. I just need to just see things for myself. Kind of hard when you’re a prisoner and locked up.
The tech manuals have shown me there are lots of new and improved technology. I can’t wait to get my hands on it! Some of the new ship designs, like the one I’m on right now, just make my hands itch. It’s an engineer thing. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed in the engineering department to check things out to my satisfaction. It’s that whole ‘enemy combatant’ thing again. They can come and see me though. Apparently, like a vid-star, I now have fans.
I really didn’t do anything, that any good engineer would not have been able to do given the time and materials.
Spending my days in confinement is starting to get old. There is a daily bright light though. Finally, a chance to get out of here for a walk.
It’s lunch time in the mess hall, and my escorts are here. Wilson likes to call them Turner and Hooch. He says it’s because “Hooch” looks like a pit bull. I have no idea what their real names are. To me, a guard is a guard.
For some reason, I am always brought into the mess hall through the main entrance. I never get to go around the back through the more exciting areas. Did they think the PPL didn’t have kitchens? The one here must be Top Secret considering how much trouble they go through to keep me out of it. The cooks and wait staff are not on my list of approved contacts so I cannot order anything. My escorts always have to order for me.
I ate my soy burger in peace as my escorts guarded my table. T&H never eat, and they never seem to talk. I’m starting to think they might be robots. Wilson, who loves robots, says no.
Following our normal routine, we walk to the observation deck. I was allowed to gaze at the stars and exercise by walking, for thirty minutes. We then had the usual silent trip back to my cell. The first couple of days I tried to talk with T&H but, keeping to the robot theme they don’t speak at all. At least not to me.
It’s only a few more days until we arrive at Naval Headquarters. Hopefully, they’ll have my hearing or trial or something soon.
Admiral Kane’s staff was waiting for me when my exercise period was completed. They were going to ‘brief’ me on what was to happen when we reach the base.
“Houston, we have a Problem.” said Wilson in my ear.
“What have you done now? Did you get into trouble again?”
“I hacked the Admiral’s Chief of Staff’s network, and it seems that part of Command Headquarters isn’t going to go along with the promise that Kane made to you. They are going to prosecute you and lock you up forever!”
Hiding my expression and my speech from the guards, I subvocalized, “They can’t do that, can they? I’m not part of their military. Technically, I represent a hostile power. Even though it doesn’t exist anymore.”
“Well, it seems that they are trying to say that because the PPL was dissolved and incorporated into the Empire that they can just do it.”
Frak It. Legalese, another thing I’m not good at. That’s why we have computers.
“Wilson, what are my options here?”
“We need some political force on our side. From what I’ve found floating around inside the databanks, complete national identity has not yet been achieved. Disregard what you may have been told about the Empire. There is still much PPL pride to be found on the old member planets. And guess what? Those folks have NOT been told about the recent events in the Diablo sector. If you authorize me, I can tell those people all about it! Time to make you a Hero, Ensign.”
“Wilson, don’t tell me that. That is the last thing that I want. I really hate politics.”
A man in uniform stepped into my cell. “Ensign Lee, my name is Lt. Commander Smith, I am the Admiral’s legal attaché. I regret to inform you that you will stand for formal charges of mutiny, desertion in the face of the enemy, insubordination, and murder when we dock. Any deals that the Admiral has made with you are now null and void by order of Governor John Wayne Buckley, sector 12 governor of our new Empire.”
“Commander, can he do that? I’m not in your military. Hell, I was declared dead for the last fifteen years. How does being left alone in a far-off sector by your own military become desertion?”
“Ensign, the Admiral and I think that this is in retaliation for Captain Buckley’s death. The captain was the Governor’s nephew. Unless something happens to change things, you are going to stand trial.”
After the lawyers had left, all I could think was that this day just went from bad to way, way worse. Crap! It seemed to me that most of the charges were utter BS. The murder charges though because the war was over... that one might stick. So much for me trying to be friends.
“Ensign, let me contact the Senate and inform them about the railroad job that this Governor is doing to you.”
Cocking my head to one side, I replied “railroad? What’s a railroad? Oh, you mean the false charges?” Actually, that’s a really good idea.
“Send them a full report include whatever dirt you can dig up about these false charges.”
They want a war, they are going to get a war!
Chapter 2
With my impending arrest approaching, security added more guards to my entourage. They also moved my accommodations to the brig. My cramped little room got bigger, but it’s now under 24-hour surveillance. My comfortable, soft bed is now gone along with any privacy I mi ght have had. Maybe I should have just taken out that fleet and stayed on my station!
I sat in the brig for a full day before the Admiral finally came to see me.
“Athena, I’m sorry.” She, in fact, did look sorry.
I just glared at her.
“I don’t have the power to override the sector governor. I have sent requests up the chain of command, but it will take time. Governor Buckley is pushing hard for a court-martial.”
“Court martial? Admiral, I am not in your chain of command! He can’t legally do this.”
Sighing the Admiral replied “ He is the only law that matters in this sector. He can do whatever he wants to.”
“Admiral I don’t think I like this new society that you people have created. In the old PPL, those in charge were held accountable to the people. We didn’t have dictators who would not follow the rule of law.”
Pacing the room, the Admiral turned to me “both my legal staff and I believe that this is revenge for his nephew. We will try to help as much as possible, but our hands are tied.”
I spent the day reviewing the rules of court-martial and POW treatment. I think the governor is a bit ignorant of his own laws. The Admiral said court-martial, their own regulations say they can’t do that to a POW. They would have to convene a military tribunal in order to bring accusations of war crimes against me.
<<<>>>
I awoke from my sleep when the ship shuddered and shook. We were docking.
Rising, I glared at the camera while taking care of my morning rituals. I decided to put on my old dress uniform. No reason not to look as neat and as military as possible. I gathered my things and prepared to leave my prison.
Station security had sent a full detachment for me.
“Prisoner Lee, stand away from the door!” shouted the large security officer.
I stepped back and resumed standing at attention. The door burst open, two large burly goons grabbed me and manhandled me out of the cell. I heard cries of “hey, treat her with respect” and “she’s not a criminal” coming from Turner and Hooch. Wow, they can speak!
“I have my orders, she is my prisoner now, move out of the way!”
The station security chief was very curt with ships security. His goon squad pushed the shipboard guards out of the way and put me their modern version of ‘irons.’ Security bracelets over my wrists, anklets secured with high voltage cables to a belt at my waist. You would think that I was a serial killer or something.
The goons smashed my tablet on the ground and kicked it along with my things into the corner. “You get nothing like this in our cells, prisoner,” they said.
Sub-vocalizing, I said, “Wilson, make sure you keep copies of all surveillance on me from now on, especially on this station and when I’m with these guys.”
Two of the guards grabbed me and physically carried me out into the corridor. I could hear the shipboard military again protesting my treatment as they escorted me off the ship. At the end of the access way, the guards tossed me, literally, into a security transport. I slammed into the transport’s interior wall, hearing my shoulder pop. I braced myself, this was not going to be fun.
My experience with station security was not memorable. It was dehumanizing and extremely embarrassing. I was scanned, stripped, and searched. Not by a female guard and not very gently either. I think my jailers got off on it. They threw a very thin shirt and a pair of shorts at me.
Once dressed I was dragged into a cell and dumped in the middle of the room. The cell was similar to the shipboard one, only not. Just an empty room with a bucket. Delightful. I sat in the corner and tried not to cry myself to sleep.
“Hey, there’s no crying in baseball!”
“Wilson, not now. This is really serious. I think these people intend to kill me in here.”
“Athena, I transmitted video records of everything. What was done to you is NOT standard procedure. Higher authorities have already been informed. I made sure of it.”
When I was younger my father, the Colonel, trained me in several of the martial art forms. Everyone in my family was trained this way. It was a tradition handed down for a generation.
Tai Chi and the meditation that came with it was what has been the most useful to me through the years. It helped me to stay sane back on Firefly. I sat in the corner of the cell, positioning myself so I could see the door. I meditated while resting.
Soon the door to my cell opened. “Shower time!” yelled the guard.
He then sprayed me with a large high-pressure fire hose. The freezing cold water chilled me to the bone. The pressure pounding on my already sore body until I was left, in my now wet clothing, lying in a puddle on the cold metal floor. That night I didn’t sleep at all. Prisoner interrogation techniques and torture were used against me. I was almost drowned several times while they water boarded me. The absolute worst was what they called the ‘confinement.’ My hands were cuffed to a steel rod that was also attached to my feet. I was unable to sit, walk, or use the ‘bucket’ for hours at a time. It was sheer hell.
A loud noise was piped into my cell every few hours to prevent me from sleeping.
The food was withheld. I ate only the barest of rations. Starvation rations that are reserved for survival packs. The guards performed bed checks every hour on the hour. Sexual threats and many innuendos were made by the guards to me. I kept expecting them to carry out their threats.
Just sheer and utter torture of both the mind and the body.
On what I think was the third day of this ordeal, the guards place another person in my cell.
She looked and was dressed like another prisoner. Her name was Shelly.
I didn’t talk to her. I considered that this might be a trap.
Unlike me, “Shelly” was wearing an orange prison jumpsuit with boots. She still had some of her personal items like a necklace around her neck. Shelly looked to be well fed and healthy unlike me.
Very suspicious.
I slept that night with one eye open. Wilson saved my life, again.
While I slept, he monitored the room through the station’s sensors.
When security shut down the cameras turning off the sensors, he quickly turned them back on and woke me up.
In my head, I heard “Athena, wake up! Someone just tried to make your cell a black hole by turning everything off. Get ready! I think they may try to hurt you for real this time.”
Playing dead wasn’t too hard to do. Days without sleep and very little food had left me looking like death warmed over, anyway.
I heard cloth ruffling across the room and a boot scrape, just before I was attacked by Shelly.
The woman grabbed me and tried to strangle me. My years of martial art training kicked in. I broke the stranglehold she had on me and punched back.
Facing off against me, my opponent pulled a shiv out of her jumpsuit. Shit just got real!
“Can I ask you, why you are trying to kill me?” I said to her, panting.
“No,” she said, “Just a job. You have to die. It supposed to look like an accident.”
She lunged at me, her shiv at the ready.
I had nowhere to run to, my life was on the line. She missed me as I dodged to the left.
Using my right arm, I blocked the knife lunge and punched her with my left fist. This stunned her for just a moment. I followed up with a hard kick to the groin. She continued slicing at me while we grappled. I got my hand to her face and tried gouging and punching at her.
She slashed my arm and hand deeply. Blood was running down my arm and onto the cell floor. Repeated strikes to her head blinded her for a moment. I used both hands and wrestled the knife away from her. Not waiting and knowing that no help would come, I stabbed her repeatedly with her knife. We both fell crumpled to the floor. Shelly’s body lay bleeding out in the center of the room.
I crawled over to her and left the blood-covered shiv next to her body. Pushing myself up I crept back to ‘my’ corner. I sat back down in my now usual place. With what was left of my shirt I managed to stop the bleeding on my hand and arms.
A short time later the cell door opened the guard called. “Sergeant Shel, are you ready to come out now? Job all done?”
The silence of the dead greeted him.
