Star Force 12 Demon Star (9 page)

“Come along with me to talk to Kalu. Be my wingman.”

“Be your chaperone, you mean.”

I held up my palms. “If that’s what you want to call it. Look, we have so few people. If we can get Kalu working for the team instead of against us, everybody wins. And, as I’m sure you know, she and Achmed are keeping each other plenty busy. He’s coming along in his studies. I’m hoping she’ll be satisfied enough with his status.”

Adrienne nodded, relaxing. “Okay, Captain. Your logistics officer will accompany you during all interactions with Doctor Kalu—for purely professional reasons, of course.”

I grinned and stood. “Let’s go.”

Adrienne gripped my hand and let me draw her to her feet. “Aye aye, Captain, sir. Lead the way.”

I admit I was slightly giddy as we walked arm in arm down the passageway, and I forced myself to put on a serious face as we approached the laboratory.

When we entered, Doctor Benson bustled over to us, his round face concerned. “Good day Captain, Lieutenant. What can we do for you?”

I glanced past him to see the sexiest portion of Benson’s team adjusting a scanning microscope with one hand while holding a sandwich in the other. “I need to steal Doctor Kalu away from you for a few minutes,” I said pleasantly.

“Oh, is something wrong?”

“Not at all. It’s an administrative matter, not a scientific one.”

Benson seemed puzzled, but nodded. “Of course, sir. If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.” He turned away.

Adrienne had already stepped forward to tap Kalu on the shoulder, startling her. My girl leaned down to say something I couldn’t hear, and then the two women walked out of the lab.

I followed. We ended up in a nearby conference room with the door closed tight. It appeared that Adrienne was taking charge, so I decided to keep my mouth shut and see what she could accomplish.

“Doctor Kalu, we need your help,” Adrienne began, putting on an air of command I’d seldom seen from her. Maybe she was channeling her aristocratic side, as if back on her estate.

“I’m listening,” Kalu said with a sulky look.

“I’m listening,
Lieutenant
,” Adrienne snapped with a flat stare.

Kalu’s mouth worked as if she was sucking on lemons, but eventually she forced a calm expression. “All right, Lieutenant Turnbull. What’s this about?”

“This is about improving your life, if you care to. Do you care to, Doctor?” Now that she had established her dominance in this little verbal catfight, it appeared she was going to twist the screws a bit.

I didn’t mind. Whatever Kalu got from the crew, in my book, she had coming.

“Of course I care,” Kalu said with a burst of annoyance. “I’m sick of only being able to go three places on the ship. I’m sick of the looks the crew gives me. But I’ve confessed to everything I’m guilty of, and I had nothing to do with trying to kill anyone—or even those vids.”

“I know that,” Adrienne said, idly running a finger along the table in front of her as if inspecting for dust. She lifted her hand and examined it casually. “That makes you the perfect person to find out who did.” Raising her eyebrows, Adrienne fixed Kalu with an expectant look.

With a deep breath, Kalu replied, “I’ll do it. Whatever you want. Anything to clear my name.” She held out her hand to Adrienne as if to shake on the deal.

Adrienne put her hands deliberately behind her back and stared down her nose at the extended limb as if it were dipped in twice used waste lubricant. “Shaking hands is a sign of mutual respect, Doctor Kalu, and you haven’t earned mine yet. Come up with something solid and perhaps you will.”

By this time the alcohol in my blood left me struggling not to laugh at Kalu’s discomfiture and Adrienne’s roleplaying, so I turned away. I tried to watch them in the reflection of an inactive wall screen. It wasn’t as if I thought Adrienne didn’t actually mean what she was saying, but I’d never seen her treat someone with such exaggerated firmness before—except possibly for me, that is.

Maybe she was growing into her role as an officer. What was it they said? “Fake it till you make it”? I’d certainly done a lot of that myself, so I couldn’t fault her.

Kalu dropped her hand, looking as distressed as I’d ever seen her. I struggled not to feel sympathy, telling myself that she’d earned all the crap coming her way. She swallowed and said, “I’ll do my best, Lieutenant Turnbull. I’ll need the restrictions removed on my access to computer systems.”

Adrienne glanced upward, as most of us seemed to when addressing the ship’s brainbox. “Valiant, grant Doctor Kalu access and copy permissions to all ship’s files and computer systems, but do not allow her to make any changes whatsoever.”

“Command confirmation required. Captain Riggs, do you concur?”

“I concur.”

“Protocols updated.”

The two women eyed one another for a moment more before Kalu sighed.

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” she said.

“Don’t mention it, Doctor,” Adrienne replied immediately, speaking all the while as if she were sipping sherry at a social event.

Kalu took a deep breath and walked out of the room. Somehow, she seemed both deflated and more relaxed. It must be a great relief for her to have found the beginning of a path back to the inside of our tiny society.

When your entire world consists of sixty people in a metal box the size of an old seagoing cruiser, every social and psychological event seems magnified.

-8-

Late the next day,
Valiant
relayed a channel from Marvin to me in my quarters—voice only. Adrienne had gone back to the logistics chamber after dinner, so I’d been staring at the wall screen, which showed an overview of the system. I was trying to spark insights into our current strategic and tactical situation.

“Hello, Marvin. No video?”

“I’m using the ansible, which allows near-instantaneous transmissions, but it also has drawbacks. In particular, this sub-standard unit I’ve been issued has a much narrower bandwidth and lower information carrying capacity than the standard com-link.”

I chuckled. “You can always find something to complain about, can’t you, Marvin?”

“I detect unwarranted sarcasm.”

“Sorry,” I said, although I wasn’t sorry at all. “What do you have to report?”

“I’ve grappled a Demon corvette-class ship, and I’ve begun to analyze it. In accordance with your express wishes to receive regular updates, I thought I would take five minutes out of my day to clue you in.”

“I detect unwarranted sarcasm.”

“Sorry,” Marvin said, clearly not sorry at all.

Damn the robot, he was picking up on idiomatic speech faster than I’d expected. Maybe pushing him toward more natural conversational modes wasn’t such a great idea. It might make him harder to handle.

“That’s an impressive use of slang, Marvin, but you can save your processing power,” I said casually. “What have you found out so far?”

“The ship contains one biotic controller, now deceased. It possesses no weapons aside from two external racks for missiles, already expended. Its hull consists of materials designed to absorb or deflect sensors, commonly termed ‘stealth.’ None of the ship’s technologies, such as engines, sensors or communications, appear to be more advanced than ours. It possesses no ansible or magnetic shields.”

“All good news. Great job, Captain Marvin!”

Marvin’s voice hesitated slightly. “While my observations are highly preliminary, I did find one apparent anomaly. The interior capsule occupied by the biotic was lined with a thin layer of anti-bacterial fluid.”

“What? Something like soap?”

“More like the lining of phlegm inside human lungs.”

My face twisted up in disgust. “They coat their ships in snot? Why?”

More hesitation followed, and when Marvin replied, I thought he seemed distressed, perhaps even annoyed. “I have no idea,” he said eventually.

“That bugs you, doesn’t it?”

“Is that a joke based on the insectoid nature of the Demons?” he asked. He seemed genuinely uncertain.

“Not at all. I only meant that puzzles intrigue you, the more mysterious the better.”

“That’s true.”

“You don’t even have a theory?”

“Not at this time.”

I leaned back in my chair and laced my hands behind my head. “Some kind of natural product of the occupant, perhaps?”

“Not that I could determine. I examined the possibility the coating might supply warmth or comfort, but nothing is confirmed. As far as I can tell, the slippery coating only makes the ship more difficult to operate. That’s a significant disadvantage.”

I blew a long breath out through my nose and closed my eyes, trying to germinate an idea, but couldn’t. “Feel free to consult with Benson or anyone else about it, Marvin. I’m no scientist. When you come up with a theory, let me know. How long until you rejoin us?”

“Approximately three days. I must reverse course and overcome the outbound inertia of both my ship and this corvette. My estimates show
Greyhound
will retain less than twenty percent of her fuel capacity when I do.”

“We’ll top you off,” I told him, “I promise. Anything else?”

“Not at this time. Marvin out.”

Marvin’s report was both reassuring and unsettling. I was glad to hear that the Demons didn’t seem to have any super-weapons or technology beyond our capacity to understand, but the unexplained layer of snot had to mean something. What was it meant to do?

Hopefully, some of our big brains could come up with a reason it was there. Until then, I filed the information away and returned my thoughts to the star system.

For the next few days, Hoon sent me hourly queries asking when his restrictions would be removed. The lobster was nothing if not single-minded. I told
Valiant
to add the queries to the log but not to otherwise notify me.

Cornelius spent her time looking through Hoon’s computer records, which were separate from
Valiant’s
brainbox, and Kalu combed the ship’s systems. She was allowed to look but not touch, so to speak.

Shortly before Marvin rejoined us on our long journey in toward Trinity-9, I called Cornelius to my quarters. We took seats in the corner that served me as an office.

“Drink?” I asked, pulling out a bottle of the best Scotch analogue Adrienne had been able to make in the factory.

“
Natürlich, Herr Kapitan
,” she said with her usual rosy-cheeked good cheer. “I presume you would like a report on the lobster?”

“Of course.”

“I have found absolutely nothing out of place in his separate records system. Of course, I’m not a cybernetics expert. I do have a good eye for detail though, and everything seems in order.”

“Hoon is very smart and very meticulous. He could have covered all of his tracks.”

Cornelius held up her glass of Scotch-like drink and looked at it closely as if trying to find a defect. “If he’s so skilled, why cover his tracks in his own systems but leave evidence in Valiant’s?”

“Presumably he’s not as familiar with Star Force cybernetics as his own. He screwed up.”

She shook her head, and then drained her glass. “Mm. No, Captain. If you want my opinion, someone is trying to frame Hoon.”

I let my chin sink to my chest in thought. “Unless Hoon is so clever that he’s running a double-bluff. He knew we’d eventually find traces of his meddling, so he deliberately made his efforts look clumsy and fake, hoping we’d discount them for that reason.”

Cornelius shrugged and set her glass down near the bottle, a deliberate hint. I chuckled and poured her another. She sipped, and then said, “Of course, that is possible, but I do not believe it is in character for Hoon to risk himself and his research so far from home. If he were to make some attempt, I would expect it to be when he had a reasonable chance of getting away with it.”

“Unless he’s starting to become mentally unstable,” I said.

She merely shrugged, and I took her meaning. We could speculate all day. What I needed was evidence, and she had none.

“Well, thanks, Chief. You’ve been a big help, if only to eliminate possibilities.” I stood and opened the door.

Cornelius tossed back the rest of her glass and rose to her feet, throwing me a casual salute. “Always happy to share a drink with you, sir.”

Once she’d gone, I called Adrienne to join me. When she’d arrived, I messaged Kalu to report to me. I wanted no chance of the sexy scientist arriving first.

I didn’t offer Kalu a drink. Instead, I sat behind my desk, with Adrienne off to the side, and gestured to the chair in front of me. “Have a seat, Doctor, and tell us what you’ve found out, please.”

Kalu took a data stick out of her lab coat pocket and slid it across my desk with a scowl. “This is my report. I composed it on a separate computer in the lab, so only you and I have a copy. Not even Valiant has access.”

“Explosive?” I said it lightly, but my pulse had quickened with the hope that I would finally learn something solid.

“Yes. But the problem is, with all the fakery and framing going on, I can’t be sure…”

I interrupted her. “Assume you’ve found the truth. What about Hoon?”

“I believe Professor Hoon is innocent of anything to do with the investigation.”

Adrienne leaned forward. “Does that mean he’s guilty of something else?”

Kalu squirmed in her seat, avoiding Adrienne’s eyes. “I wouldn’t say ‘guilty,’ but he is an alien, and he has his own agenda, rather like Marvin. It appears he routinely tries to hack
Valiant’s
systems. Sometimes he’s able to get in and view files, but I don’t think he’s ever been able to change anything.”

“Why haven’t I ever heard anything about this?” I asked.

Adrienne cleared her throat. “Sakura and I knew about it, Captain,” she said stiffly. “I reported it to Hansen long ago, and he told us to keep an eye out but not to bother you…that you had enough on your mind already.”

I raised an eyebrow in amazement and irritation. “I’m the captain! I decide what’s relevant and what’s not. What else have people been keeping from me?”

The two women exchanged glances, and for a moment, I felt as if I were on the outside looking in, as if despite their animosity they shared something I never could.