The Epherium Chronicles: Embrace (21 page)

One of Maya’s forensic team members walked up and handed her a data pad. She thanked him and started to immediately digest the information on the screen.

“Do you think this is one of your ‘anxiety’ induced incidents, Lieutenant,” Hood asked as they walked through the office toward the front door.

“No, this was pre-meditated, not a random event.” Maya handed Hood the data pad, “Take a look.” Hood took the data pad from Maya and started to read as Maya explained. “The four victims were attacked quickly and methodically. It takes precise timing and knowledge of the office layout to accomplish this without raising alarm.”

Maya walked over to each of the bodies again and simulated potential postures of the victims before they were attacked. “As you can see even from this initial assessment, none of McCraken’s staff show any signs of defensive action, and there are no other signs of struggle like overturned chairs or desks out of alignment. The attacker would have had to attack at range or move extremely fast to be effective at close range and still maintain some level of surprise with each new attack. Whoever did this was a professional.”

Hood looked at one of the bodies and shook his head. “Will the security camera footage give us anything?”

“Doubtful. I had my team check. All the cameras in the rooms were disabled when Epherium took over the office. They only log entry for the change referenced the Corporate Privacy Act of 2095.”

“Fantastic!” Hood exclaimed. “Any more good news?”

Maya accessed her own data pad and began to quickly search through pages of a file. Her blue eyes flashed as she found something. “Perhaps we have some. We do have active cameras in the hallway. We should be able to pull something from them and determine who entered the office and when, including Lieutenant Krieg.” Maya walked over to the computer terminal in the back of the room. “It also seems that murder may not have been the only thing involved here. My team found a recent security bypass of this terminal.”

“Can you determine what was accessed?” Hood asked.

“My team is already on it, but it would help if we had someone familiar with the system to grant us better access. I plan to request that from Mr. McCraken once he recovers,” Maya said as she looked over at McCraken, who was being eased onto another medical gurney by a nurse and security force officer.

“I still don’t get why Krieg was even here. What do we know about him?” Sanchez interjected.

“Lieutenant Harrison Gunder Krieg, born July 6, 2126 in Hamburg, Germany to parents Heinrich and Estella, both deceased at age nine, train accident. One sister, Elsa, age 24, also deceased. Graduated EDF academy at the top of his flight school class and has served with distinction on three different vessels. According to his file, he’d just come off medical quarantine for a stomach virus,” Maya rattled off without even looking at her data pad.

A quick look of revelation crossed her face. “Wait one second,” she said as she accessed some additional data. “It says here, his sister died in a planet side station accident on Europa two years ago, almost to the day.”

“Not the Kendrick incident—” Hood asked as he looked over at Maya with an almost resigned look on his face. He knew where his Chief Security Officer was going, and it wasn’t going to look good for his junior officer.

Sanchez, seeming sort of lost in the discussion, looked over at Maya’s data pad. “What happened at Kendrick?”

Maya handed the data pad to Sanchez to review as she explained. “Kendrick was initially an Epherium science station, but it was expanded for a variety of other civilian businesses. Even with the expansion, Epherium wanted to use the station as a staging platform for a new terraforming system on that moon. According to Epherium, the amount of CO2 and underground ice formations made it an ideal candidate for their experiments.” Maya pointed to the information and zoomed in on a picture of the Epherium facility. “There was an explosion in the primary processing area at the research lab, and an incredible amount of poisonous gas flooded the station. It killed everyone, including Lieutenant Krieg’s sister.”

Sanchez handed the data pad back to Maya and watched as Dr. Patton’s team began to remove the first of the bodies. “So the kid blames Epherium for killing his sister. There’s your motive.”

Hood shook his head. “I don’t buy it. Lieutenant Krieg has served on two other ships that placed him in direct contact with Epherium personnel. He had plenty of time to exact any type of revenge. Why now?” He looked at the terminal. “Did you team find any DNA residues on the terminal? Was Krieg the one who accessed it?”

“The results were inconclusive. Several people have used the terminal in the past few hours, and we will need to isolate all of them. I have ordered a more detailed analysis, but it will be several hours until I get a result,” Maya said reluctantly.

Hood took a deep breath and slowly exhaled in frustration. “It’s a waiting game then. Fine, keep me informed of your investigation. By now word’s spread on the ship, so I’m going to have to do some damage control. I’ll...” Hood stopped as heard a familiar voice from behind him.

Henry McCraken had managed to sit up on the gurney and was motioning for the nurse to bring Hood over. “Captain...” His voice was a bit slurred. “I need to talk to you...”

Hood walked over and knelt down beside the Epherium executive. “Henry you need rest. We can talk later.”

McCraken’s eyes seemed more focused now. He managed reach his feet, but Hood held his arm to steady him. “No, I’m okay, and I want to help.” He looked around the room as the rest of his staff was being removed from the office. “What happened to my people? Who did this?”

Hood helped McCraken to another chair. Hood and Maya took a seat opposite him, while Sanchez stood behind them. “We were hoping you could tell us, Henry. We have a few leads, but what can you remember?”

McCraken thought for a few seconds before he started to speak. “Well, I was in my quarters. I was about to start a vid recording for my wife back home, when I heard Gerald, one of my aides scream. He was in agony. I ran to the door, but that’s when I heard the others, Mike, Phillip and Terry all start screaming. I heard thrashing on the other side of the door, and I couldn’t tell if whoever was in the office was coming for me, so I hid.”

Maya pointed back at the office. “What kind of room was that? It’s not a part of the original floor plan.”

McCraken looked at the nurse. “Could I get me a drink of water? My mouth is really dry.” She nodded back to him, and he patted her hand. She came back with a glass, and he quickly drank more than two thirds of the cup. “Ahh...much better. Oh yes, the couch. It’s a standard secure storage area for corporate documents that we install in all our office spaces. Due to its design, it sometimes has been used as a low grade panic room.”

Maya leaned back and crossed her arms. “Not much of a secure room, I was able to open the hatch easily.”

“Normally there is a security panel on the outside, but I didn’t think it was necessary. There is a latch on the inside of the door to seal it from the outside, but I panicked when I jumped in and rolled to the back without engaging it,” McCraken explained. He looked back at Hood. “You said you had some leads?”

Hood gestured to Maya to explain. Maya’s blue eyes centered on McCraken as she spoke. “We have one suspect in custody now, a Lieutenant Harrison Krieg. Do you know him?” She held up her data pad as it displayed a recent picture of the young pilot.

McCraken shook his head as he sipped some more of his water. “Sorry, I haven’t met him before.”

Maya’s eyes narrowed. “Currently, he’s unconscious, and the circumstances of his involvement are still under investigation. Are you sure you haven’t met him before?”

McCraken looked away at Hood, then to Sanchez and finally back to Maya. “I’m sorry the name isn’t familiar. He’s an officer. What part of the ship is he involved in?”

Maya continued to stare intently at McCraken. “He’s a combat pilot, but let’s move on, Mr. McCraken, shall we. Have you or your staff received any threats recently?”

McCraken shook his head again. “No. If we had, I would have reported it immediately to the captain or your office, Lieutenant.”

“Fair enough,” the Security Chief said smoothly. “Epherium is a big company, it’s bound to have made enemies over the years. Can you think of one that may try to damage or sabotage its operations?”

Sanchez chuckled. “Just one?”

Maya and Hood slowly deadpanned toward Sanchez. The scowl on Maya’s face was evidence that she wasn’t pleased. Sanchez recognized the awkwardness of the moment and slowly back peddled. “I think I’ll head back to the Command Deck and check our status.” He edged around the desk and headed toward the exit.

Hood sighed, looked at the floor and shook his head. After Sanchez left, he looked back at Maya and McCraken. “Sorry about that. Please, let’s continue.”

Maya studied her data pad for a few moments then set it down on the desk behind her. She looked back at McCraken who was quietly strumming his water glass with his index finger. “Mr. McCraken, let’s look at this a little differently, shall we?”

McCraken downed the last of his water and set the glass down. “Okay, Lieutenant.”

“From what we can tell, this was not just an attack on the office personnel, but your company’s data may have been a target. Let me show you.” Maya walked over to the terminal and instructed McCraken to take a seat in front of it. “This terminal, in particular, was hacked for files with restricted access. My team says they have never seen a hack like it and would like to investigate it further, but it’s your company’s data. I want your permission before we begin. I promise we will not access any of the files, but we will note the files accessed and look for a pattern that the attacker used to identify any data.”

“Thanks for being up front, Lieutenant,” McCraken said, as he started to access the terminal. “Listen, you can use any method you need to find out what they wanted. I am willing to give my company’s full support behind this investigation.”

“Hmmm,” Maya mused. “Thank you for your cooperation in this matter, Mr. McCraken.” She looked up and waived one of her forensic team members over. “This is Sergeant Hamels. He is my forensic systems specialist. I want you to work with him on this investigation. That way you can personally verify data confidentiality.”

Hamels pulled over a second chair and sat next to McCraken, who immediately turned the terminal over to him. “You have full access Sergeant. How can I help?” McCraken asked the forensic investigator.

Hood and Maya left the pair huddled over the terminal as they walked toward the office front door. Maya glanced back at them and covered her mouth as she spoke. “He is hiding something, Captain. He was not lying outright, but he did recognize Lieutenant Krieg. I could see it in his reactions. He may not have met him personally, but he knows who he is.”

Hood assumed the same posture as Maya and watched McCraken assist Maya’s investigator. Both took turns pointing at the terminal screen then Hamels would type furiously. “He is crafty, that one. Do you think he has any idea what the killer could have been after in their system? If it was Krieg, what did he have to gain?”

Maya watched her forensics team pack up the evidence bags, including McCraken’s data pad. “McCraken is concerned about the data access, but he was truthful when he said he wasn’t sure what anyone could be after. Most likely, there could be a variety of things on their system that are confidential and valuable.”

Hood rubbed his forehead in frustration, and his stomach let out a loud gurgle. “Okay. I need to update EDF Command on the situation and get something to eat. I’ll be in my quarters if you need to update me.”

Maya examined the security taser closely and made a few notes in her data pad. “I’m going to review the video logs and follow up on some leads of my own to see if anything comes to light.” Maya placed the taser in an evidence bag and nodded toward McCraken. “I know we are short on answers, Captain, but Hamels is one of the best systems guys in all of the EDF Security Forces. If there is anyone that can find out what was used to hack that terminal and what was accessed, it’s him.”

* * *

Hood slowly entered his access code into the pad outside his quarters. He stepped inside as the door opened and was just about to sling his jacket across the room when he noticed Martin quietly placing a plate and some silverware on his desk.

“Ahh, sir. I thought that might be you, so I had your food warming up. Chef had some pancakes and link sausage for you. It smells like real pork too,” Martin said as he walked over to the small kitchen in Hood’s quarters. “Please sit down, sir. I’ll get this right out for you.”

Hood sighed quietly, tossed his jacket on his bed and walked over to his desk. The hearty smell of the sausage coupled with the sweetness of warm syrup filled the room, and his stomach growled with delight. He was about to enjoy his breakfast when Admiral Tramp’s advice came to his head. “Mr. Martin, have you eaten?”

“No, sir.” The young petty officer held up his own covered plate. “I was about to head back to my quarters and have breakfast.

“Out of the question, Mr. Martin. Please, take a seat. You’re eating with me this morning,” Hood insisted.

Martin looked quite surprised. Not sure how to respond, he pointed toward the door. “Umm, sir, enlisted personnel aren’t permitted to eat with officers. I’m fine in my quarters.”

“It’s my ship isn’t it, son?” Hood asked and began to cut up his pancakes.

“Yes, sir,” Martin replied nervously.

“Sit down, then. Eat,” Hood said with a short smile then filled his mouth with a large bite of the pancakes that were soaked in the syrup. He swallowed heartily and looked at the still perplexed Martin. “It’s alright, son. Sit. Besides, I could use the company.”

Martin pulled up the chair next to the desk and set his plate down in front of him. Like Hood, he also had a full plate of pancakes and sausage. Martin opened the small sealed cup of syrup on his plate and guided the warm liquid over every piece on the plate.

Hood smiled inwardly as he ate. He knew Tramp would be grinning from ear to ear if he saw this. He knew full well how Hood disliked small-talk. Hood set down his fork and wiped his mouth with his napkin. “So, Mr. Martin, why did you join the military?”