Surviving The Theseus (11 page)

“L-look, I’ve done everything I can. Nothing
is working. How the hell am I supposed to figure anything out with
no navigation panel or read outs of any sort? The whole system has
crashed, or was sabotaged. All I know is we’re moving, and we’re
off the grid.”

“What?” Rachel said. “We’re off the markers?
That can’t be.”

“It be,” Dave said. “Look, I’ve been on this
ship since its inception, and I know acceleration when I feel it.
Someone cranked this thing full throttle and broke the marker
barrier, killing our engines. The markers slowed us down, but
didn’t pull us back. We’re moving at a pretty good rate. Where to?
I have no idea.”

“Blair, you need to help Dave and see if you
can restore power to these consoles,” Rachel said.

Without a word to Rachel, Blair walked over
to Dave. “Show me the control circuit panels.”

Dave led the way to a column behind the
pilot’s chairs, with several glass-like panels stuck into the
column like a library of books.

Roy never took his hating eyes off of
Regina.

“Is it true?” Rachel asked Regina, while
nodding towards Roy. “Did this man drug you?”

“Yes,” Regina said.

“She’s a liar,” Roy said. “Why would I drug
anybody?”

Regina sighed with frustration. “Maybe
because you’re a fucking pervert. Maybe --“

“I will not be talked --“

“Maybe!” Regina yelled. “Because you’re part
of a cowardly group of men who have been murdering innocents on
Halcyon Four.”

“What? I’ve never been on that planet
before.”

“Halcyon?” Rachel said. “Isn’t that where
that mining dispute was?”

Regina looked over at Rachel. “That’s right.
I’m guessing this is one of the pissants that lost his job because
they got greedy, and under universal employment law, section 10,
subsection C, a company is allowed to replace any employee they see
as a direct threat to the company’s future, due to an unresolved
labor dispute longer than three months. When the strike was not
resolved due to negotiations, the company fired everyone and hired
non-planetary citizens who were glad to get paid the old contract
wages. The previous employees were all given the option to work for
their old wages, but declined.”

Roy said nothing, but his face gave him away,
gritted teeth, eyes seething.

“You knew what would happen after three
months, Roy. What the hell were you holding out for? The company
gave some very generous contract offers, but you just had to have
more. Did you not think they would go through with their legal
rights?”

Roy exploded. “They had no fucking right! I
don’t give a fuck what the law says. No fucking right to do what
they did!”

“Oh, but they did. So much so, that an
attempt at an appeal resulted in a very swift ‘go fuck
yourself!’”

“It’s our planet. Ours! Not those
cocksuckers, those fucking scabs!”

Rachel watched in silence. Dave and Blair
looked over, but then continued working on the panels.

“You can’t plead ignorance of the law, Roy.
Yet you tried, and then you and your buddies committed multiple
murders.”

“What? What murders? What are you talking
about?”

Regina remained calm. Very pleased at how
easy it was to break Roy. No one stole her weapon. No one.

“So far, the tally is at something like 963
murdered, yet outlanders keep on coming, Roy, and they’ll never
stop. Not with the chance to feed their families. What you’re doing
is not only wrong in every way that it can be, it’s accomplished
nothing.”

Roy charged Regina.

Rachel stepped back.

Regina brought her weapon up and pointed it
at Roy’s head.

Roy grumbled irritably, and then backed off
and leaned against a console, pushing a chair out of his way with a
kick of his right foot. The chair crashed into the edge of another
console, but did no damage.

Regina smiled, and Roy mouthed the words,
“I’m going to kill you.”

“We don’t have time for this,” Rachel said.
She yelled over at Blair and Dave. “Blair, what’s the scoop?”

Blair walked over, nervously looking at
Regina who was still pointing her weapon at Roy, then over at Roy,
and then quickly back to Rachel. “The main boards are fried.
Someone sent one hell of a charge through them. Even the redundant
systems are gone. They should have spares kicking around, but Dave
doesn’t have any idea where they might be.”

“Suggestions,” Rachel said, not to anyone in
particular.

“I think you know what we need to do,
Rachel.” Blair said it in a whisper, but Regina heard it
anyway.

“No. That’s not an option,” Rachel whispered
back. Again, Regina heard it.

Regina had had enough. “That’s it you two.
Enough of the bullshit. You know something and you’d better come
out with it.”

“Or what,” Rachel said, “you’ll shoot
us?”

“Yes.”

“God,” Rachel said, “you’re psychotic.”

Roy cleared his throat loudly and they all
looked his way. “I know what she is,” Roy said. “Psychotic is a
start.”

“You shut up!” Regina said. “Just the fact
that you know proves my point about you.”

Rachel furrowed her brows at Regina and then
turned back toward Roy. “What, Roy? What is she?”

Roy’s mouth started to move and Regina
straightened her arm, aiming directly at his head. He shut up.
Whether he was about to say she was a SOAD or not didn’t matter to
her. Well, it did, but not as much as a lying piece of shit saying
whatever he wanted. That wasn’t going to happen.

“Stop!” Blair said. “I’ll tell you, Regina.
It doesn’t matter now. Nothing matters.”

Regina relaxed somewhat, bringing the gun
down by her side, still pointing it in Roy’s general direction.

Dave had come over by this point, listening
intently. Even Roy had taken his death stare away from Regina and
was watching Blair.

As much as Regina wanted Roy to be guilty of
what was going on, she suspected otherwise now, especially because
Roy was not smart enough. Not on his own. But then again, he never
worked on his own. The mine killing group always attacked in
numbers, but this smelled of something different. Could it just be
a coincidence that Roy, probably with help, came on board because
they wanted to take Regina out? She thought so. She wondered how a
group of thugs got the better of her SOAD brethren, knew who they
all were, and where to find them. Now that Regina knew who was
responsible for the SOAD killings, she also knew that somebody,
likely government, leaked information. There would be lots of time
to figure that out later, if she ever got out of this mess.

“You’re fucking us, Blair,” Rachel said.
“Just so you know. I’ll never forget it.”

“We’re fucked anyway.”

The intercom crackled loudly. Everybody
jerked at the sharp sound.

A voice sputtered over the intercom. “This is
Space Patrol and Rescue Squad, commander George Pratt speaking,
with a crew of seven others. Are you in need of assistance?”

They all looked over to the intercom’s
monitor on the wall between the two doors and saw a miracle. Eight
SPARS members dressed in their traditional camouflage outfits and
heavily armed. An audible sigh rang through the room as several of
them, including Roy, were relieved something was going right for
once.

Dave unlocked and swung the door open.

The SPARS members all piled into the room,
John and Paula staying behind until Dave spoke up. Dave looked over
at George. “Um, you should probably all get in here. It’s not safe
. . . out there.”

George looked at Dave, sizing him up Regina
thought, and then nodded at John and Paula to come inside.

Regina backed against the far wall from Roy
and watched them all come inside, everyone gaping at each other
expectantly.

“Who’s in command here?” George said.

Dave, Rachel, and Blair looked over at
Regina. She said nothing.

Dave walked over and closed the door. It
clinked shut and then he cranked the wheel and pulled a lever to
lock it. “I guess I would be.” He nervously glanced at Regina and
Roy. “At least, as far as this control room goes.”

Regina sized up the SPARS. They looked very
competent. The two that lagged behind before, continued to do so,
one at each door. The commander looked to have had years of
experience, his large nose slightly askew, but not as bad as
Blair’s. His eyes looked kind, but his voice was very gruff. He did
not speak quickly, probably thinking about everything before he
spoke. She wanted to know how the hell they got up to the control
room without any problems, but she would wait until things got
sorted first.

“My name is George, and I am the commander of
this crew. Beside me is Mary, second in command.”

That surprised Regina. She assumed rank would
go with age, and that the older gentleman, or at least older than
Mary, who was looking Rachel and herself up and down, would be the
next in command. When George introduced Michael, she was even more
surprised, because he seemed very young to be third in command, but
looks are definitely deceiving.

After introductions, George looked back at
Dave. “What’s the situation? We have just restored power and
compression to the shuttle bay. Some shuttles trail this ship, but
no one onboard any of them. We saw nobody on the way up here,
nothing but piles of clothing. We thought it was a ghost ship,
until we found all of you.”

Dave shook his head, looking like he didn’t
know what to say. “C-can I ask how you got through security?”

“What security?” George said. “There was a
security door just before we came in here, but it was open.”

“No. No, that can’t be,” Rachel said. “I was
the last one through it, and we all heard it close shut.” Rachel
looked over to Blair and Regina, and both nodded in agreement.

“It was not left open,” Mary said. “Someone
broke it open, and they must have been damn strong, because it was
a pretty solid, metal door. It looked like someone kicked it in,
because the only damage was to the door bolt and the door jam. And
the keypad was smashed.”

Dave walked over and looked at the intercom
monitor. Regina looked over, but nothing was out of the ordinary
that she could see. Paula and John looked at Dave and then at the
screen.

“Jesus!” Blair said. “We haven’t been in here
that long. They must have come in just behind us, but we never saw
anything. And where the hell did they go?”

George walked forward, looking at the
consoles, and then turned back around to face the group, looking
from Roy, to Dave, then over at Blair, Regina, and Rachel. “You
need to tell us what has happened here.”

“None of us really know what is going on,”
Regina said. “Except these two.” Regina nodded at Rachel and Blair.
“They seem to know something.” Regina explained about the events at
the bar the night before, with Roy, about the strange, orange
light, and about the tennis ball-sized brown blob. She also told
about running into Blair and Rachel, and the events in the casino
with the mother and child. Roy called her a liar when it came to
his part in her story, but kept his cool.

George took it all in and did not speak right
away. He looked around the room, and even at his own crew. “Regina,
is it?”

She nodded.

“Can you prove to me that this man --“

George pointed at Roy.

“-- did what you say he did?”

“No, she can’t,” Roy said.

“Sir,” George said, “you’ll get your say in a
moment.”

Roy turned away from George’s hard gaze.

Regina stared at Roy. “Yes, I can, without
question.” Roy glared back. Very loudly and never losing eye
contact with Roy, she said, “Primary Active! Goo! Fire one!”

Inside Roy’s jacket, there was a distinct
splat! sound.

George looked over at Michael, who, without a
word, walked over to Roy, reached inside his jacket, and pulled out
a gun. The gun was black, and had two barrels and two magazines.
One magazine was in the handle, and the other magazine in front of
the trigger. Roy did not fight back at all, and could look no one
in the eye.

“This is a SOAD weapon,” Michael said.
Michael furrowed his eyes at Roy and looked over at Regina. “You’re
a SOAD?”

“Yes, I am,” Regina said. She didn’t want
everyone to know, but there was no denying it. Anonymity was her
friend, her savior. On the plus side, it revealed Roy as a
liar.

Michael walked over and handed the weapon to
Regina. She held it for a second, staring at it, and then put it
inside her coat, back home, in its holster.

Brett gawked at her. She returned the favor,
and he turned away.

“What’s a SOAD doing on a commercial cruise
vessel?” Mary asked.

“As it happens, ma’am, I’m on vacation, after
several of my associates --”

“Associates,” Brett said. “That’s a laugh.
Killer.”

Mary stared Brett quiet.

Regina smirked at Brett. “After several of my
associates were murdered by the people Roy works for.”

Roy glanced around the room. “What? What
people?”

“After that,” she continued, “I was forced
into vacation until things got sorted, but it didn’t change the
fact that all SOADs have been targeted for termination by this band
of idiots. Their only advantage is working in numbers. So what
happened to your crew, moron?”

Roy visibly swallowed. “What crew?”

Regina very quickly drew her 45, and shot
twice, once in each of Roy’s kneecaps. Luckily for Roy, Regina
changed the clip out earlier from shock bullets to regular
bullets.

Roy screamed, collapsing to the floor. Blood
soaked his tanned pants.

Brett, and then Paula and Cindy, pointed
their weapons at Regina.

“Stand down!” George roared. “Stand down. We
have no authority over a SOAD and have no jurisdiction to
interfere.”