Chapter 18

I dreamed that I was with my Uncle Stephen on a space ship. He was taking me home from the Academy through a highly traveled jump point, marked with a navigational buoy. A ship couldn't open a hyperspace gateway just anywhere. The right conditions to fold space required a strange emptiness that allowed an interstellar drive to break the veil. Uncle Stephen had come to me in a fold-capable craft, the most sophisticated vessel in the clan's fleet. The prototype explorer class ship could break virgin territory if necessary, but our trip was a simple ride back to Solon. Our clan ship's design had never been purchased for production by the Empire; so, now it was just a highly automated, armed transport ship for my family. Warning alerts sounded, filling the air, as some strange force pulled us out of fold space. Webster cried out, "Unidentified wormhole."

The door chime woke me. "Only a bad dream," I whispered, feeling instantly on edge.

I checked my implant for the time; it was unnaturally early; someone was calling on us well before my morning Bridge shift.

"Who is it, Miley?" Wendy asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Petty Officer Rayz Harper," Miley answered from a speaker.

I whipped off my covers, which revealed Wendy's naked form. For a moment, Wendy's come-hither smile had me rethinking answering the door. Her eyes flashed mischievously when I left the bed. Nonie lifted her dainty shoulders, using her elbows to push herself up to see what was going on; satisfied, her serene brown eyes closed as she went back to sleep, the same sleep that had beckoned me last night, but not before I'd spent a wonderful night in her energized company. I felt responsive to my lovers' naked bodies, but Rayz wasn't the socializing kind to make an unneeded call on us.

"My women are beautiful," I thought, "in their naked glory."

I pulled my skinsuit on, trotted to the door, and opened it. Rayz looked relieved and gave me a quiet thanks. There was a sense of anticipation on his face.

"What has you all worked up?" I couldn't help yawn behind the back of my hand.

"I couldn't get a hold of Commander Tarry last night. I let it go, but this morning I just feel we need to see him," Rayz said. "It's just not like him not to at least leave me a return message from my missed call."

Rayz looked twitchy, he was upset. It couldn't hurt to allay his concerns.

"A visit to his quarters sounds prudent," I answered, "give me five minutes to shower and dress in my uniform."

"Thanks, Von, its means a lot to me." For Rayz that was gushing praise. He was worried.

After my shower and once dressed, I kissed my lovers goodbye. Rayz had stayed in the corridor, so when he saw me he just tilted his head towards the elevator. We walked quietly, shoulder-to-shoulder to the elevator. A familiar female engineer ran right into Rayz and shoved off him, trying to exit in a hurry, but we had blocked most of her path. Lt. Boorman's cousin, Nora glared outright at me and jumped off the elevator, darting towards the bow of the Entous.

"She's in a hurry." Rayz said, "Something lit a flame under her butt."

I had no choice but to laugh, Rayz had made a joke. Today, Nora's animosity wasn't going to burn through my emotional armor. Ignoring my snorting laughter, Rayz punched the button for our destination. The door closed. The Chief Engineer's cabin was not far from Main Engineering in the aft of the ship. I counted the levels as numeric symbols flashed by on the way to his lower deck floor. Main Engineering covered parts of three decks. Any deck below engineering was considered a lower deck; all those above it were called upper decks. It didn't matter that there were more upper decks than lower decks; upper deck and lower deck were expressions relative to the general locations that my crew mates used.

Another level, another corridor, and we found Commander Tarry's quarters. I hoped he wouldn't be upset having us visit so early in the morning. Rayz didn't hesitate hitting the thumb print on the door panel. A chime rang inside Tarry's cabin. Impatient, Rayz rang it again and again. I was sure Tarry would be pissed by now and open the door with a howl. No one answered.

I touched the communication pad on the door panel. "Hello, Commander Tarry, it's Rayz and Von. Can we see you?"

No answer.

"This just isn't like him," Rayz muttered.

I knew my action could wipe out all the goodwill I had built up with the Chief, but opening the door felt like the right thing to do. "Miley, override the door lock and grant me access. Log my reason as wellness check under the code section for medical emergency."

"Acknowledged," Miley said from the door speaker, "touch the outline of a hand on the door panel."

I slapped my hand on the panel, the outline of a hand-print turned green and the door swooshed open. Rayz walked in first.

"I knew it!" Rayz couldn't keep the disbelief from his face.

Commander Tarry was sprawled out just inside the door, a smell of urine and feces hit my nose. Random pieces of his clothing were on the floor around him. Rayz dropped to his knees and rolled Tarry over, putting his fingers to the Chief Engineer's neck.

"A weak pulse," Rayz howled, "Chief wake up. Chief it's Rayz, wake up."

Tarry didn't move. I reached down and grabbed Rayz by the upper arm, hauling him up to his feet. My partner's frantic face was in shock. He needed direction and focus.

"Rayz, call Medical!" I demanded.

Rayz pulled out his PDA and screamed for help, once he was connected to the emergency response team. While Rayz was distracted, I turned my back to him, directing Miley to inform the Captain. I didn't want Rayz noticing my sub-vocalizing to the ship's A.I. I pulled out my own PDA to contact Ulla in a normal fashion. "Better safe than sorry," I thought, "since most people don't know I use the implant that way."

Tapping my PDA, I said, "Contact Lt. Ulla Foth."

"Lt. Ulla Foth is currently on Winterfall," Miley announced from my PDA's speaker.

"Shit! I forgot she was going ... Hey, so early?" I asked.

"Commander Price ordered the shuttle to depart early," Miley responded, "your mate is the lead pilot."

"Kate?" I sputtered, feeling totally surprised since today wasn't her rotation of duty.

"Affirmative," Miley acknowledged, "The scheduled lead pilot is on the sick call list."

Realizing I had sidetracked myself, I changed gears and directed a call to security. A female duty officer answered and I explained our finding. The woman answering muttered that a few security men would come, but she said it sounded like a medical event rather than a security concern. Rayz went back to Tarry and then back to the door to peer out. Since my partner was distracted, I turned to the Chief and videoed the scene from all angles. The unfolding drama didn't feel right. Rayz moved back to listen to Tarry's shallow breathing, and then wandered back to the door; he stepped on one of Tarry's shirts and I heard a crunch that Rayz ignored.

"Come on! His breathing is shallow," Rayz shouted outside the door.

Someone was clearly coming. I lifted up Tarry's shirt to see what Rayz had stepped on.

"Broken glass shards from a tube," I mumbled, videoing my find, as two medics ran into the room and almost knocked me down.

A third medic parked the red, emergency response cart outside the door. Rayz frantically explained what we found to the woman. The female medic patted Rayz on the shoulder and silently joined her partners.

Instinctively, I sent the recorded video to Yeoman Wood. "She is secret service and this accident doesn't feel right."

Next two men in tactical gear came to the door. "Security," I thought, stopping what I was doing and clipping my PDA to my belt.

The security men looked the scene over professionally, while the three medical responders examined Tarry. After a few minutes of trying to stabilize Tarry's condition, the medics lifted him onto the anti-gravity medical cart and took him away, while the security men took our statements of how we came to be in his quarters. The questioning was perfunctory and they released us, securing the Chief's cabin.

I was worried about how Rayz was taking things, there were glints of tears in his eyes. Thinking fast, I said, "Rayz can you go tell Dr. Cina what you know? She will need your insights to help people in the engineering department. They are likely to become upset over this."

Rayz opened his mouth and then closed it, looking irritated. Finally, my partner grumbled that he could do that. One of the security men seemed to understand what I was doing and announced he was going to talk to Dr. Cina too; he escorted Rayz towards the elevator. The other security man took an at-rest position outside of Commander Tarry's door, guarding it.

"You know your job. I best be off to mine," I jested, breaking the silence.

The guard smirked and gave me a polite nod as I left for a crew-lounge restroom. I felt dirty and my stomach growled. Alone in the elevator, I said, "Miley, keep me informed about anything strange that happens on the ship."

From the elevator speaker, Miley responded. "Acknowledged."

Out of the elevator, by the Mess Hall, my mind drifted to my conversation with the two yeomen last night. In this very lounge Yeoman Wood solicited my help. "What does she want?" I wondered, still picturing her resolve when I balked at the request.

My PDA dinged with a message and I looked at it.

"Thank you. On my way to Medical to see Tarry, signed Harper Wood."

Time seemed to compress as I spent the next hour between sitting in the lounge and having a simple breakfast in the Main Mess. I daydreamed and considered all that was going on in the Entous. The sabotage of the ship's energy systems, the murder of Winterfall, the strangeness of Tarry's collapse, all left my paranoid brain working on the events for links. I was lost in thought, looking at the crewmen's eyes as they milled around the food stations, when Merritt pulled me into a hug.

"Good Morning, lover!" Merritt purred, her brown eyes radiating intelligence and warmth.

I kissed her as she sat next to me. "You're a bright treat to my day, Merritt."

"Sweet talker," Merritt whispered before kissing my cheek. "Why do you look glum?"

"Rayz and I found Commander Tarry unconscious. He is in Medical."

Merritt shook her head as if to clear it. Her normal instinct would have been to question me, but she didn't. Merritt's happy face fell and turned morose.

"Tarry hasn't been returning calls and he missed a shift yesterday, so Rayz asked me to visit the Chief's quarters with him."

"Wow," Merritt breathed, succumbing to the need to talk.

"I have been sitting here thinking about it. What is strange is that Commander Price was the one to call Tarry in sick yesterday."

Merritt swore under her breath, giving me a disapproving gaze when I mentioned Price. She brushed an errant black piece of hair aside to recompose herself.

"It makes sense for Tarry to talk to Price who is responsible for personnel and duty scheduling, but I'd have thought Tarry would have called Lt. Clare Fante directly since she reports to him and she is a shift duty-officer for engineering," I explained.

Another kiss warmed my cheek as Julie sat with us. Her prosthetic arm easily handled her food tray, which came to rest on the table top.

"Hey, people," Julie sighed, "another routine work day for me, but I am on Von duty tonight."

Both of my lovers laughed. The two of them loved to announce it when it was their turn to cuddle up to me at night. I waited a beat, refusing to be drawn into that bit of banter while crewmen walked past me. This was all foreplay to my lovers, not that I really minded. What surprised me was Yeoman Wood's voice behind me with the familiar voice of Richard Rogers, the captain's steward and a yeoman himself.

Both Yeoman Rogers and Harper Wood sat across from me with serious faces. I groaned inwardly. My Bridge shift was about to start and I'd rather spend the last few minutes with my lovers.

"All right, what has you two hunting me down?" I asked. "Is this about Commander Tarry?"

They ignored my question and greeted each of my ladies, showing better manners than I.

"Ensign Winslow, Yeoman Gundlach," Rogers and Wood, each said in turn.

"Forget the rank and titles," Julie snorted, "what's up? You both have your serious faces on."

"Thank you for the video and the heads up on Tarry's condition," Harper swore. "Things are out of hand."

"I don't understand," Julie replied.

"Commander Tarry is in a coma," Richard explained.

"A drug induced coma," Harper whispered, leaning across the table. "That broken ampoule you found was from an injector. There is a discolored patch of skin at the back of his neck."

"Attempted murder?" Merritt asked.

"I'm not sure. The drug impairs his motor skills and fill his organs with a toxin; nothing a healing bed can't clean out in 72 hours," Harper explained, "but it could have killed him."

"Any idea who did it and why?" Julie softly asked with a faint trace of concern.

"Someone Tarry trusted to enter his quarters; there wasn't a struggle," Richard whispered, nudging Harper.

"The corridor cameras near Tarry's cabin were off-line, disconnected from the maintenance tunnel," Harper added.

"Someone timed this out well," Merritt mumbled.

"It was planned out," Julie said, frowning in agreement.

Changing directions, I asked, "Yesterday, what specific help did you want from me, Harper?"

Uncharacteristically, Harper slid out her perfectly manicured, but wrinkled hand to me, which I took.

"I am on this ship to follow Lt. Bryant Boorman, who is a relative of some nasty people that operate on the edge of the Empire," Harper announced. "While Boorman's career trajectory doesn't correlate with his family's activities, he is the only accessible connection I have with them."

"Guilty by association?" Merritt asked.

"There is more to it than that, but we aren't going to get into that," Harper answered smoothly. "These people are pirates, raiders, slave traders, building a base of operations that we don't like."

"A deep space pilot is highly educated and highly trained, and the competition for the position is intense," Julie offered, "He is a natural helmsman and shuttle pilot."

"It wouldn't surprise me if girlfriends were waiting for him in all the major ports," Merritt added.

"They are." Harper smirked. "It helps being rich and good looking."

"Mr. Personality," I mumbled.

Merritt grunted her assent and nodded in agreement with me. "Boorman hits on Kate and me, every chance he has. It's so annoying."

"What about Boorman's cousin?" I asked. "She works in engineering."

Richard and Harper looked at each other questioning, and then latched on to me with their intense eyes. Harper reclined in her seat, letting go of my hand.

"His girlfriend, you mean?" Harper stuttered.

"That is what I thought at first, but Nora is his cousin. She told me herself."

"A missing link?" Richard asked Harper, raising an eyebrow.

"I'll follow it up. Any other surprises for me, Von?" Harper asked.

I scrutinized Harper and she locked eyes with me, interested in my insights. "Harper, how many crew members are on the sick list and haven't visited Medical?"

Rogers swore and then lifted his PDA up, madly punching at menus. "Ten."

Harper had her own PDA out now. "Captain, Ensign Solon had a thought. Can you send security to check on the ten people on sick call that haven't been seen in Medical?"

"Good idea," Bank's answered. "Ten people are a thimbleful compared to how many crew and scientific staff are on this ship, but the idea has potential." He disconnected.

"Start with officers and NCOs," I warned.

Reading my mind Richard looked over his list on his PDA, raising five fingers. "One of them is on this level."

"Let's go, Richard," Harper ordered. They both trotted out of the room, causing a stir.

"I lost my appetite," Merritt said, not having gotten her food yet.

"Not me, you never know when you'll need the energy boost," Julie said and winked at me.

"Love you both, but I have Bridge duty and I have to go," I announced, getting up.

They both grabbed an arm and held me, while they kissed my cheeks at the same time. A couple of female sensor techs catcalled from the table next to us, mocking our bit of public affection. The two crew women started a stream of whistles from men. Kissing in the mess wasn't normal and not appreciated by the ship's command team. Not that any discipline was going to happen to a yeoman or to Merritt, who was a civilian technician and a noble from a powerful clan.

My two lovers took bows, playing up to the female sensor techs. The techs played back with them, exhaling noisily and putting the backs of their hands over their foreheads as if they were going to swoon. The crew gave me a long appraisal, so I felt like a celebrity as I exited the room.

I opted to climb up a ladder one level before taking an elevator to the Bridge. I wanted to avoid any entanglements, imagining Yeoman Wood grabbing me if she found something in the cabin they were investigating. On a whim, I ducked into the security office on my residential floor to see who was on duty. Private Nehring's black face peered around his monitors, he was in full tactical gear. I suspected all on-duty security personnel were on a higher stage of alert. We made small talk for about 60 seconds before I dashed off to the Bridge. "Never hurts to keep up good relations with the guy who is watching my cabin door," I thought, "I bet Commander Tarry wishes his floor had a security office. Maybe there will be, in the future, after the attack on the Chief Engineer."