Journey to Centauri is a web-based episodic tale that details the splintering of the U.N. Alpha Centauri Mission on its way to the new world. Read the previous episodes. |
Journey to Centauri : Episode 10 (part 2) "Find Saratov!" Captain Garland shot to Lal. Ensign Martchenko sat rigid at his own console, but Garland ignored him. At this moment Garland trusted Lal, to the exclusion of anyone else in command. Except perhaps Skye. Skye... He punched a link to her. "Officer Skye, acknowledge immediately." "Yes Captain." Her voice sounded crisp and smooth, professional in this time of crisis. "I read you." "We have discovered insurgents on the ship. Crewmembers moving about without authorization...we don't know how many or exactly what they want. We don't believe they are in your area, but you need to be careful. Have one of Saratov's crew post outside the Hydroponics module." "Saratov's people are no longer here, Captain. They left a few moments ago under orders." Garland froze for an instant, startled. "Did they say why?" "No, Captain. They were pinging the synthglass panels on the far side of the Greenhouse when a commlink came in. All three of them packed their tools and departed quickly. And Captain...I could use people here. Whether we stop the ship or not, someone will need to eat, and my hybrids need tending. I can't rely on...that is to say, Saratov's people are quite busy." "Understood. Send your crew requests to the command mod and we'll trigger their wakeup from here. Keep the number to a minimum. Also, activate the motion detectors in the hallway outside the Greenhouse. Be careful, Deirdre." "Understood." Her fluid voice hung in the air for a moment after Garland closed the link. Then he tapped Lal on the shoulder and issued him quiet orders. "Where is Saratov? Key in to the tracking unit in his uniform." "Commander Saratov is...inside a mechanical accessway. The delta on the tracking module is not zero, so he must still have it on his person...wait, he is moving only...2 centimeters...and now one and a half centimeters the other direction..." "Get a visual." He glanced over at Saratov's ensign, Martchenko. He could practically see the man's ears burning. "Captain." On Lal's screen flickered the image of a wide circular accessway. There was no sign of life. "The tracking module puts him in that hallway, shifting slightly back and forth..." Garland leaned over and scanned the image carefully. "Wait. Zoom in, here. Enhance." Lal's fingers danced, and a spot on the floor expanded in a series of fluid jumps. There, on the floor: a tiny metal and glass cylinder, rolling back and forth on the curved floor of the hallway. "He's pulled his tracking unit out, or it's fallen out. But where is he?" Lal punched up a schematic of the ship. "The accessway leads to cargo bays on either side, full of equipment in one, common supplies in the other. But...here, a small maintenance duct. Leading to..." The schematic whirred along the length of the duct. "The weapons bay." said Garland. "But he can't open it." "Unless the code has already been broken. He may have reason to believe that it has." "Open the datalinks. Reconstruct whatever he was doing on his console before he left, keying on that magenta color the computer uses to highlight final results." "There's no need, sir." came the gruff voice of the young ensign. "I believe the commander had something running here before he left." Garland crossed to the science console and looked on the screen. "Can you interpret?" "The armory log file, usually updated several thousand times a second, had no updates for a period of over three seconds during this time frame." He flicked his hand towards a highlighted time range sometime before the ship had been hit. "It must have been tampered with, sir." "So Santiago's people must have gotten in. They are armed." "Captain. Look at this as well." Lal's lilting voice had gotten faster and more clipped, excited. "Most of the engineers have moved into the same general area. Near the weapons bay."
Santiago's profile is now up. Next episode will be posted on Monday, August 3rd. |
