Authors: DENNIS MILLER
Returning to her own room she sat at the desk. “MAC”
“Commander, request please”
“Leading Engineering Officer Miles: location?”
The reply was instant. “Leading Engineering Officer Miles is in the Biohibernation section.”
“Who else is present?”
“Leading Pilot Officer Hidson.”
“Status of their remote interfaces.”
“Both remote interfaces are closed down.”
Rachmel began to wonder if Miles had found himself a soul mate, but discounted that as Hidson was a family kind of man of long standing; however, he wouldn’t be the first married man to turn the corner on a long voyage. At that moment, MAC broke into her thoughts.
“Commander, do you require these Officers to report to your quarters?”
“No, but inform me whenever these two officers close down their remote interfaces.”
Duarte took her meal tray over to where Andretta was sitting, alone, in the galley and, standing at the table, she asked “May I join you?”
Andretta looked up, her face impassive as ever. “Certainly, but don’t blame me if you suddenly find yourself with a reputation.”
Duarte sat down opposite her. “I don’t think this will make any difference; nobody seems to be speaking to me anyway; in fact, no one seems to be speaking to anyone much.
I can’t say I won’t be happy
to see the end of this mission; how about you? It can’t be much fun, after all gh…” she immediately corrected herself, “I mean, Agents are not particularly known for having friends in the services; this must be a very lonely trip for you.”
Andretta smiled.
“Loneliness and boredom are not issues to an Agent and if we are not working then we are practicing our skills, or spending time with our families; those that have them that is.”
Duarte had finished her first tablet and was beginning on the next. “So how often do you get to see your family?” She asked.
Andretta cocked her head to one side and said bemusedly, “If I didn’t know better, I would say I was being interrogated by a fellow Agent.”
They both laughed at this: just then, Coles stepped into the galley; Duarte raised her hand and said “Hi there.”
The medical Officer replied “Hi” and went out again.
Duarte looked at Andretta. “See what I mean?”
Andretta leaned back in her seat. “Don’t worry about it; this is a very special mission which, if successful, could open up horizons for mankind that haven’t even been thought of yet; under these kinds of circumstances it’s no wonder everyone is feeling the tension.”
Duarte’s brow furrowed. “Well, the tension doesn’t seem to be bothering you.”
Andretta nodded her agreement, “I have trained for years neither to show nor to feel stress. You on the other hand have not and I observe no tension in you.”
Duarte thought for a moment and then responded “I can’t remember that I have ever felt stress of any kind while in the service; I’ve always had an attitude of exploration. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe in taking unknown risks but I do want to know what’s around the next corner. What do you think we’ll find out there?”
“Much like yourself, I hold no preconceptions; I work purely on evidence and fact. But what do you believe is waiting for us? After all, you are the on board scientist.”
“I don’t know.
But whatever might be out there, I just wonder if they are ready to meet mankind.”
“What do you mean?” Asked Andretta.
At this moment, Hidson entered the galley: got his meal and, without a word of recognition, he sat down at the next table behind Andretta with his back to them. Duarte watched as he sat and then, raising her eyebrows and shrugging her shoulders, she smiled at her companion.
Andretta grinned, knowingly, and said “You were saying?”
“Well, it seems to me that we have been slaughtering each other for tens of thousands of years; sometimes in the name of one deity or other, or for land resources, or just to enslave people and to take what is someone else’s; but the main objective has always been power. The power of one person’s will to overrule all others. Leadership is, after all, the suppression of will and we find it natural and acceptable because we, as a life form, have never explored the possibilities of living in any other way; and the killer question to all this is ‘but what would you replace it with?’ The sad answer being ‘we just don’t know: we shall never know.’”
Andretta regarded her for a moment before remarking “That seems to be quite a cynical view of our race for one as youthful as you.”
Duarte nodded, “It would be cynical if I had made it up or had twisted the facts to suit my argument, but I didn’t; it is all there in our history and no amount of creative re-writing will change it. So, with that kind of foundation to our race how do you think we will treat any alien forms that we might encounter? Are we looking for friends? Or are we stalking prey?”
Andretta regarded the woman for a few seconds before replying “I wouldn’t care to speculate: but for all our sakes we should hope that they haven’t had a similar foundation.”
Miles was running inspection checks when Hidson arrived at the ULiSS bay section. Without leaving the Hoverbug, Hidson said “Talk time.”
Miles nodded his response and made his way over to his own vehicle.
Once in the Biohibernation section they closed down their remote interfaces.
Hidson spoke first, “One of them is Duarte: and from the way he’s been acting, the other one must be Kamul.”
Miles was taken aback at the assertion. “What makes you so sure?”
The Pilot began to recount the conversation he had overheard in the galley.
Rachmel had barely stepped back into her quarters when MAC announced “Commander, conforming to your instruction in relation to Leading Officers Hidson and Miles: these Officers have closed down their remote interfaces.”
“Where are they”.
The response was immediate, “Biohibernation section.”
“Location of all crew members.”
“
Rachmel, Commanders quarters: Coles, Medical quarters: Andretta, Main galley, seating area two: Duarte, Main galley, seating area two: Kamul, physics laboratory: Hidson and Miles, as previously reported. Do you have further instructions Commander?”
What was going on? She could understand Andretta’s motives for openly chatting to people in the galley; that was her way of getting everyone used to her presence and accepting her as just another crew member. But what were Miles and Hidson up to? They were both becoming increasingly reclusive: could the unthinkable be true? That Miles was the target? And that he was recruiting the pilot as an unsuspecting accomplice?”
She had to confront t
hem before it became an issue. “Erase my last two entries.”
“Confirmed.”
“Hoverbug to my quarters immediately.”
“Confirmed.”
When Rachmel stepped outside, the vehicle was waiting in the corridor and, once on board, she instructed “Biohibernation section, direct route.”
“So what do we do?” Asked Hidson. “If we confront her, who knows what they may have put in place to save themselves? I say we go to the Commander.”
Miles looked up quickly. “No. We can’t go to the Commander with this.”
“Why not?
She’s in charge of this mission; she should know what’s going on.”
“I agree.” Came the voice from the doorway. The two men froze as Rachmel walked into the room: Miles’s mind was racing; he wondered how much she may have overheard.
“So why are two members of my crew having secret meetings and withholding information that could prove detrimental to the success if this mission?”
Hidson was first to break the ensuing silence, “We think Duarte and Kamul are Andretta’s targets.”
“I can understand why Kamul, but why Duarte?”
Hidson retold the account of what he had overheard in the galley and then added “And she was made 2.I.C even though she is the youngest on board with the least experience of field missions; there has to be a reason why she was able to pull enough strings to gain such a position.”
Glancing at each of the two men Rachmel decided to take them into her confidence.
“I agree
that Duarte could be the target, but for different reasons than yours; first, she appears to be very agitated by Andretta’s presence but relaxed when speaking to her: second, she did not pull strings to become 2 I C of this mission; that was Andretta’s doing; don’t ask me how or why, but she did it. I must also ask my original question, why were the two of you trying to keep me out of this?”
She looked now directly at Miles who found himself unable to meet her gaze: Hidson also looked to Miles for an answer.
Lowering her tone so as not to intimidate the man further, she asked “So what’s going on? Why didn’t you come to me with this?”
Miles was cornered, with nowhere to go. Raising his head, he looked directly at the Commander and replied “Because I thought the target might be you.”
Both Rachmel and Hidson were taken back by this revelation.
“How could you think it was me? We have served together for twelve years: we are fully acquainted with each others families: we know all there is to know about each other.”
Miles replied, softly, “I didn’t know that your niece was, in fact, your daughter.”
Rachmel was stunned into silence: her outward appearance was one of calm and confidence, but inside was turmoil and anger.
As the two Officers locked stares
, Hidson, who had been looking first at one and then the other, at last broke the deadlock, “What the hell’s going on here?”
When no one answered
, he went on “If I don’t get an answer, I’m going to utilise the Chief Pilot’s discretionary override: turn this vessel the hell around and get back to base: then you can explain to Missions Command why this crew has been disjointed since day one.”
Again no one spoke as Rachmel struggled to regain her inne
r composure, and as Miles was regretting his outburst.
Hidson looked directly at Rachmel, who appeared to be totally absorbed in her own thoughts and unaware of his presence; in a low and threatening tone he said “I’m serious Commander; talk to me or I shall abort your mission.”
Finding an inner strength she turned to her Pilot and spoke quietly, “I know you are serious and you have every right to be concerned; what you heard just now was a matter of an extremely personal nature that, to my knowledge, had been confined only to the members of my immediate family. I was somewhat surprised to find that this knowledge has now entered the public domain.”
Miles felt the need to try to turn this situation about. “Commander, I apologise for my outburst, I should never have brought it up, and as far as I am concerned it is not in the public domain, nor shall it ever be.” As an afterthought he added. “I really don’t want this to come between us.”
Rachmel turned to him and considered before speaking and then said “I appreciate and accept your apology, but I would like to know how you came by the information.”
“Andretta:
it was something she said when telling me about the alien connection.”
Rachmels brow creased in surprise. “She told you about the alien contact on board?”
Miles nodded, “Yes, I asked her outright why she was here, because I didn’t go for the bullshit story that we were told. She said that one of them was a female with a child; I said it couldn’t be you because you didn’t have children and that’s when she told me.”
Rachmels gaze wondered across to
the nearest bio unit and her eyes came to rest upon the name stencilled on it; ANDRETTA.
Andretta! what the hell was this woman doing? She seemed to be giving out different versions of the same story: was this the way she was trying to keep the identity of her target secure? by blowing smoke in everyone’s face?