The silence was what grabbed my attention. Life on ships followed a certain rhythm. What I felt now, was less a stutter in that rhythm, and more a complete lack of any of the usual tell tales.

I sat up from the bed. I checked and it was mid shift in my off time. My watch was more along the lines of a micro computer linked to the ship, than a mere time keeper, but it did that also. With advanced communications, it showed more on its little display, than most of the work consoles on the bridge.

My feet hit the deck and I was dressing in the haste of a trained spacer, when they know air and life required speed and accuracy, when donning a space suit. My cabin was just forward of the bridge, old standard from the first nuclear powered ships, maximum shielding between the captain and the engines. The seals were new, but with no power flowing to the doors, most would not close fast enough, or might jam. Air was what was leaking out, air flowing out like the life blood of a living animal. The ship was dyeing, and I was its captain, sworn to put it and the mission, ahead of my own safety.

I hit the general address on the com panel, no response, and very bad news, because that system was on a battery backup. Next I tried the door to my cabin. The wheel turned a little before stopping ... that, was a very bad sign.

Well this looked to be it, mutiny. Nothing else covered all the problems I was seeing. For that my solution was clear, the ship I had the misfortune to be captain of, was a colony ship, bound for the newest uninhabited system discovered by Earth. Not a happy ship full either, all criminals, and me the least likely of the lot, I was one of the few, that helped retrofit this ship for what it was being used for. Unlike what we had planned for though, we were not in charge of a group abandoning Earth, we were part of the desperate, sent to tame a new world for those that will come later, and inherit what our blood and sacrifice built. This was what all criminals received for sentencing these days.

I held no hope of any mutiny being successful. Not only was I one that felt that with getting caught, we deserved our punishment, but those that this ship carried were the most dangerous the justice system could produce. One hundred thousand misfits made up the crew, most that felt that killing was an acceptable solution to any problem. With me as their leader, my self being more akin to those that put them away, than themselves. They know that I was more of a political sacrifice to the public, than the hard core brutal monster, that was the standard of this trip. Now they felt that with the lights of our home star receding in the distance, that I was no longer necessary, and they intended to do something about it.

That was their first and final mistake. I am a man with a past that few, if any of them, knew. A past I was not ready to stop remembering, just because some thug thought my usefulness was up. I was easy going, in almost any and every situation, but they forgot that I was here for the death of twenty people, and I freely admitted that I killed them.

Now let me explain, I don’t just kill for fun, I don’t enjoy it in the least. But if my life, or the well being of the masses is threatened, I will take immediate and permanent measures. I am captain of this vessel, because I have all the skills, and the moral background to carry out all the commands of those that condemn me, without resentment. I have more regret than I can bear some day, but I do not resent those that made me captain of this ship.

I jumped in my cryogenic tube and hit the command lock down protocol button. The doors of the cabin slammed, as the air was vented from the bridge and all corridors. The prisoner cells will have popped open the cryo tubes, with the lock down/hull breach alarm sounding through the ship. Anyone who was not in a cryo tube in thirty seconds, would not have any air to breath. Light would be shut off in twenty seconds, except for the cryo tubes, and heat had already been shut off, so the air was already getting cold.

I had programmed this, without letting anyone else know about it, and I had personally strung the wire and fed the tubing, from the cryogenic tanks into this cabin. No one would, or could, cut the lines, without shutting down all power in the ship, and draining the tanks. I could see only three other cryo units lock, as I felt the first of the chemicals hit me, causing paralysis, and by the time the second and third chemicals hit, five minutes had passed, and only one more cryo unit had been activated, but the first three had red lined already. Just before everything went black I seen the only other cryo unit in use red line, meaning I was now alone.

It might be best if I elaborated on a few points. First I am just twenty three, and I am fresh out of college. I majored in advanced engineering, and have my pilot’s license for all ships space worthy. I was assisting a man I made friends with in college, who had a dream. I was one of his promising students, who he felt confident with confiding in.

“The stars can be ours Alex” He would say that often. I was a very good engineering student, and had made several suggestions, that he passed along to ‘The Project’ that multiple learning institutions, and a few private corporations, were funding. When I earned my degree, I was offered a position on the team, working on ‘The Project’.

It didn’t take long before I discovered that the colonization ship was being armored far heavier than necessary, and with some basic snooping, I discovered the heavy military grade weaponry also installed. All energy, or mass acceleration style, so that ammo was nonexistent, or any simple piece of material could be used, with a metallic jacket to hold it.

I used my personal time, hiding everything, and making it appear low power, for defensive use. I was good, so no one that shouldn’t know, seen anything that they shouldn’t see. I was onboard with educated masses taking their own ship, and going somewhere that the government was elected, and not paid for by the rich.

I even made friends with the space marine, who was posted to observe our progress, and insure nothing inappropriate went on. She was amazing, and I fell in love. Between us, there was plenty of inappropriate activity, and if we had not used protection, by the second year of construction, I would be a father.

Then I got into the computer section, and discovered the truth. The programmer they had was subpar, and I kept fixing his design flaws, and cleaning up code, that he kept making a hash of. I had discovered that I enjoyed doing complex programming, and had helped with the AI, behind the scenes, by using other peoples log in codes to clean code, and cut out the clutter that other programmers wasted processing speed and memory with.

I even cleaned out the three law crap, that could so easily be bypassed, because they didn’t know how to word it properly. While doing that, I checked the trash files, and found a lot of email that was deleted, minutes after received, so I cloned the mail to my private access, and read through all of it. What was so sensitive, that they had to hide it, right after sending and receiving. Conspiracy! The ship was being armed to take over one of earths newest colonys.

Now I agree that people, if responsible for their actions, have the right to be armed and to make their own choices, without the government interfering. If people want to leave the planet, and pay for what they are using, I see nothing wrong with that, in many ways neither does the government. It is the armed part, the government took exception to, and this was why.

I forwarded every last bit of evidence showing the who, when, and what, that proved how many corrupt government officials were paid to look the other way. All the major businesses that were supplying personnel, and material, to mercenary forces that were being hidden onboard.

The hardest thing was to include myself in the information reveal, so that I would not be killed outright, by the criminals involved. My former girlfriend marine, found my data link up in her bedroom on station, and spotted the open email I had been typing up, just before leaving, the night everything went to hell for ‘The Project’.

It took a full week to process all the cases, in a world that could see a complex murder trial take less than two days, from arrest to conviction. It was not because anyone was innocent, or that the trials were that complex. It took so long, due to the fact so many people in the justice branch of the government were named as accessory, that it took that long to find and arrest everyone involved, due to limited staff.

I personally was brought in by my marine watch guard. She asked why once only, before stunning me. My only words were “I never meant for you to be hurt, and that is what I truly regret.” I had planted my data link, and left it open, so she could and would find it. I even admitted that in the trial, because I felt that she deserved credit for finding out what was happening, since by her involvement with me, I had shielded her from the truth, by explaining irregularities so that she accepted them, even when I was unsure of what was happening myself.

Minutes before I was sentenced, I received legal petition for release of parental rights from her lawyer. I looked up to her, and she was nearly in tears. I wrote ‘I love you, do what you think is best for our child, because I trust you completely’ and signed the release. The lawyer had been in court during my testimony, so knew the truth about how little I was involved, but since I was very public, I had to be made an example of, to satisfy the public.

The buzzing woke me. Cryogenic sleep is not for anyone that didn’t have good health. I was in great shape but could barely stand in the 50% gravity that I read on the sensors. Time was scrolling backwards so I knew something wasn’t working properly. The warning was early cryo release due to tank low protocol. The dust on everything around the room and stale air in my cabin made me cough, so after opening the cabinet that my clothing was stored in, I stripped out of my uniform and dressed in the clean undergarment, before putting a new suit on.

I could see the bed messed up, and stuff unsecured, so I knew I had entered the cryo pod because of an emergency, but it typically took weeks to months to regain full memory, due to some of the chemicals used, so I was unsure what all happened.

“Status?” I got no response so I worked until I had the door to the bridge open, and discovered it was not vacant. Three people were laying on the floor near the door to my cabin. All three had illegal firearms, and that gave me a chill. I notice most of the bridge was dark, so I tossed the weapons in my cabin, and returned to put on my firearm.

Examining the bridge and the two working stations, I determined that the ship had major damage to the power conduits between the mass reactor and the bridge. I exited the bridge and stopped at the sight.