See Disclaimer Information in Part One
Damphousse was sitting cross-legged on her bunk, looking out
at the stars. “Nathan, what do you think will happen
now?”
“I don’t know, Vanessa. For so long, I wanted to see
Aerotech in this kind of trouble for what they let happen to the
colonies, to Kylen. But there’s no way to pay them back for
what they did, it’s just too much. Just maybe they
won’t ever get the chance to do it to anyone else. I hope
what happens is everyone finds out how much power Aerotech’s
taken that they aren’t supposed to have, and things
change.”
“Do you think Hayden knew about the massacre?”
“Before or after it happened?” Nathan countered.
“She knew what was going on by the time that I went AWOL on
Tellus, I’d almost swear to it. I looked her right in the
eye when I asked her if she knew about the chigs and all that.
Now I know why she got so upset.”
“She didn’t answer. She just ran out of there.”
“Yeah, I know. I know what I saw.”
Vanessa asked, “Are you going to be here a while?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Because I’ve got an idea. This has the whole ship all
in an uproar. If I was going to have a psychic impression it
would be now. So I’m going to see if I can make something
happen.”
“I don’t know what you want me to do.”
“Just hold the rope, you know? The Colonel told me not to
fool around with this stuff when I’m by myself.”
“Well, that makes sense!” Nathan told her.
She closed her eyes. She had no idea what to do, whether she
should try not to think about anything or whether she should try
to focus on one thing.
The first thing she was aware of was the deep pulse of the
ship’s engines, she knew that sound better than anyone
except the Sara’s own engineers. Then she heard her
own breathing, and the hum of the desktop computer’s cooling
fan.
Then all of that began to recede into the background. Images
flickered, she saw Cooper sitting at a table in the rec room with
Mark and Christy. That one wavered and she lost it, forgot and
opened her eyes. She started over.
Damphousse saw a bay full of consoles, a man was sitting at one
with his back to her. It was a room in the Sara’s comms
center, she’d been there before. He was talking in a hushed
voice to someone, but she couldn’t see who because he was
between her and the screen. He was saying, “....All of them
at one time. It won’t be any trouble to set a bomb.
I’ve got access now.”
There was a pause as the person on the other end said something.
“I understand that, Control. This will end my usefulness on
the Saratoga in any case, I’ll need to make my
break at that time. As soon as the bomb is set, I’ll
initiate the omega protocol.”
The scene wavered, she concentrated until a sharp pain in her
temple nearly made her cry out but she couldn’t bring the
vision back into focus again.
Nathan hesitated to touch her, afraid of doing her harm if he
startled her. When she opened her eyes, he asked,
“’Phousse? Are you okay?”
“Yeah.... It worked, Nathan! And then some! Where’s
Shane?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t seen her since she left
last night. Three guesses where she was after that, but
now--”
Vanessa pulled herself out of her rack and over to the phone,
dialed Shane’s beeper number. She controlled the impatient
urge to hop from one foot to the other. Someone was planning to
set a bomb! It seemed like forever, but it was really only a
couple mikes before the phone rang back.
“Vansen here.”
“Shane, it’s ‘Phousse, I have to talk to you now!
Where are you?”
“In the office,” was the reply.
“Is the Colonel with you? Anyone else?”
“Just us, why?”
“I’ll be right there!”
Nathan followed along. Shane asked, “’Phousse,
what’s going on?”
“I was trying to make my powers work, and I did. I saw the
Commodore’s spy! He was in the comms center talking to
someone, he’s going to set a bomb--!”
“Whoa, slow down!” Vansen told her. “Exactly what
did you see? Who is it?”
“I don’t know, he had his back to me. I don’t
think I can pick point of view. I could hear him, but not the
other side of the conversation. He was saying something about all
of them at one time, and that it wouldn’t be any trouble to
set a bomb because he had access now. And then he said that this
would end his usefulness on the ‘Toga, and that he
would initiate the omega protocol as soon as the bomb was
set!”
McQueen got hold of Ross, knowing the Commodore would want to
hear this and question Damphousse for himself. Ross told them to
stay put, that he would join them there, and it took him about
five mikes to get there.
Damphousse went through it again. Ross asked her to describe the
spy. She closed her eyes, trying to visualize the scene again.
“He was a white male with dark hair, and he was wearing a
‘Toga jumpsuit, sir. He was sitting with his back to me ...
I couldn’t see any unit patches or anything. He didn’t
have any certain accent ... maybe a little bit Chicago or
Detroit. I’m sorry, sir, it wasn’t very long.”
Ross said, “No, this helps. We know it’s a white male,
that cuts out at least two-thirds of the people on board the Sara
right there. Now about the bomb. Do you know who he meant by
‘all of them’?”
“Us, sir, the 5-8. I’m sure of that. My visions nearly
always warn me of danger to myself or someone close to me.”
“ ‘Now’ he has ‘access’. Access to
what?”
She shook her head blankly. “And ‘omega
protocol’....”
Ross and McQueen looked at each other. Ross said,
“That’s got to be one of their codes. Probably his
escape plan to get his ass off the ‘Toga after he
starts blowing things up!”
McQueen nodded, that was a reasonable guess.
Damphousse said slowly, “If they want to be sure of getting
‘all of us at once’ ... it would have to be the
barracks or the briefing room. Or maybe the Tun....”
“No one would have to worry about ‘getting access’
to the Tun,” West observed.
“Unless he just became an officer,” Vansen said.
Ross shook his head. “The last promotions were a couple of
weeks ago. That probably wouldn’t be news to his controller
at this late date.”
McQueen said, “We need to double-check the comm logs, and
see if we can locate a record of that transmission.”
Nathan snapped his fingers. “I know where the bomb is ... or
where it’s going to be. Right under Shane’s pit on the
flight deck. If it hadn’t been for ‘Phousse here, it
would have been a while before anyone suspected that a flight
deck explosion was a bomb. The spy would have time to make his
getaway in the confusion.”
Ross and McQueen exchanged a glance before the Commodore ordered,
“Get me this bastard alive.”
“Yes, sir,” McQueen replied.
Fortunately, they were all more or less on their own until the
paintball game was scheduled to start. They had to carry on their
normal activities to avoid spooking the spy into just making a
run for it -- there was a better than even chance, the way things
were going, that Aerotech would soon be in no position to punish
him for failing to obey orders.
Damphousse drew the job of checking the comms records, she
thought the vision had taken place in real time so she decided to
start with the last ones and work backwards. The rest of them
went different directions to warn Cooper of the plot and search
for the bomb.
Since West had thought of that hiding place, he took the job of
working his way through the crawl-space to Shane’s cockpit
lift and hunting for the bomb. He wasn’t really surprised
that it wasn’t there yet, there were too many people moving
around in the daytime. If he were the spy, he'd want to set the
charge while he knew the 5-8 were all occupied elsewhere with the
paintball game. He said as much to McQueen when he met up with
him in the maintenance tunnel a few mikes later.
McQueen nodded. “You’re probably right about that. No
one could just walk across the bay without being challenged by
the launch controller, so he’ll probably get in this way.
But I’d sure like to know what the hell he meant by getting
access.”
“That paintball game is going to present a problem.
We’ll have to be there, or he’ll know we’re onto
him and rabbit.”
“So you’ll be there, I’ll take that watch
myself,” McQueen said.
“There’s an electrical locker right before you get to
Shane’s pit. It’s a tight squeeze, but there’s
room, I checked. You can see the tunnel for quite a ways in both
directions through the ventilation slits.”
“Okay, I’ll be back about 1700.” McQueen gave West
his sidearm, it was the only firearm they could get without going
through the armory and possibly alerting the spy. No one was
betting he didn’t have their names flagged on the
ship’s computers.
West reflexively checked the clip. You never assumed a weapon was
empty, but if you had any sense at all, you never assumed it was
loaded either. Then he disappeared back into the crawl-space.
McQueen went by the briefing room to check around in there, just
in case. Then he caught up with Shane and Cooper, who were
searching the barracks. Mark and Christy had got involved as
well, since they’d been with Cooper when McQueen had warned
him, they were watching the hatch.
Shane said, “It looks good. I think West was right. The spy
knows we’ll be together on the flight deck, and when, if
he’s been watching us at all.”
“West’s down there now. I’ll take over for him
later.”
They went about their normal activities waiting for the paintball
game to start. Finally it came time for McQueen to take over from
West. Shane and the others went down to the gym, where they were
supposed to meet the other teams. West met them there.
They picked up their gear and got their starting positions. The
playing area was all down on the bottom deck, mostly in the cargo
holds and surrounding corridors. The ‘Cards started out in a
supply room not far from Hydroponics.
Nobody stayed in a gang, teams broke up into twos and threes to
play hunting scenarios. It was too easy to spot a crowd. Julie
saw someone duck into one of the holds, they followed. It was
Todd Flannery, he hit Julie right off but then found himself in a
paint-fight with Shane. He knew she had a two-shot paint pistol
for a holdout, so he couldn’t rush her while she was
reloading. He dodged through a hatch into the next bay, with Rob
two steps behind him.
She followed and for a while they hunted each other through
stacks of blankets. Both of them were careful where they shot, no
one would be happy to come down here and find paint on the new
blankets. Finally Shane decided enough was enough. She climbed up
onto the top shelf of a storage unit, crouching among the
blankets until Todd came around the corner.
Shane snapped off a shot and nailed Todd. He looked up and glared
at her. But he burst out laughing when Rob popped around a corner
and took her out not two seconds later. With a grin at Todd, he
took off looking for West and Damphousse.
She cursed and swung down from the shelf, and threw Todd a
blanket off the nearest stack. “Here you go. If we’re
going to be dead we’d might as well be comfortable.”
She sat on her own blanket and leaned back against the bulkhead.
Todd said, “Tough luck.”
“Yeah.”
They were silent a few moments. Neither of them were comfortable
with being here, but the “casualties” had to stay put
until the round was over. Technically, you were supposed to lie
down and try to look like a realistic corpse. In practice, if you
stepped over a “dead guy” he’d probably do his
best to trip you or make you yell and give away your position to
the other team. It was all part of the fun.
Todd said, “Close game.”
She nodded. “Your newbies are pretty good. Too bad
Billy’s still laid up.”
“Yeah, he was pretty pissed off about it. I think I used to
be that young once. Nothing keeps ‘em down long.” Todd
shook his head, grinning.
Shane thought that she probably used to be that young once, too.
And then it occurred to her that Billy couldn’t be more than
a couple or three years younger than she was. Hell, if you wanted
to look at it that way, she had been breathing the air for a few
years longer than Ty. That was a really weird thought, because
there was no sensible way that she was “older.”
Todd said, “Penny for your thoughts.”
She stole one of Nathan’s favorite lines. “They’re
worth a lot more than that.”
“There are going to be new movies tomorrow. Would you like
to go?”
She looked at him. “I’m not dating right now,
Todd,” she said finally.
“You stopped dating after you were captured that time.
Shane, I’d be lying if I said I understood ... really
understood ... but don’t you think it’s time you
rejoined the living? There’s still a lot of good. Whatever
they did to you, don’t let it blind you to that.”
“Oh, Todd!” The kindness and caring in his voice
brought tears to her eyes, all the more because there was no way
she could say what she had to say without hurting his feelings.
“You’re a good friend, and I really value that.”
“Then what is standing in the way of at least finding out if
we can be more than just good friends?”
“Because I fell in love with someone that I can’t
have,” she said. That was just enough of the truth to make
it a damn lie, she thought. “I’m waiting to see if
situations change. I care about you a lot as a friend, Todd, I
really do. But that’s all I can give you. Hurting you was
the last thing I ever wanted to do.”
He read the finality of her statement in her eyes, and looked
away. “Then I guess you’re not the only one who’s
in love with someone they can’t have,” he said.
“Did he tell you to find someone else?”
“You...might say that.”
“Then don’t bother telling me that. You know it’s
useless.”
“Yeah. Todd--” She broke off helplessly.
He looked up at her, and finally smiled. “If ‘good
friends’ is the best I can do, I’ll live with it,
Shane. You are a damn good friend, and I wouldn’t lose that
for the world. I won’t say any more about it. If you ever
give up on the other guy, just let me know.”
Vansen nodded. “Todd...I wouldn’t be a good friend if I
didn’t tell you that will never happen. Not if I have to
wait a lifetime. If that’s what it takes, that’s what
I’ll do.”
“I believe that. Whoever he is, he’s a lucky man. I
hope he appreciates that.”
She clasped her hands around her ankles and waited for the stupid
paintball game to be over with.
<end part 10>