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“Oh that.” Abrall rubbed his shaved head and then his neck and slumped in the chair. “Remember I told you about the screeching noises?”
Theo nodded, keeping himself from rolling his eyes with an effort. You mean the ones no one else can hear? Fleming sent me a bottom of the barrel engine tech. The chief probably didn’t want to part with any of his top people. “I recall your mentioning a concern, yes.”
“Well, I’m teaching this damn beast a lesson now—she lets the screech get too loud and I starve her of power, a tiny bit, enough to sting but not really hurt her. Seems to have helped.” Abrall’s face was wreathed in a smile and he tapped one of the controls. The lights flickered and Theo felt the ship shudder ever so slightly. “See?”
“I’m not sure regulation procedure covers this,” Theo said, seriously alarmed now.
“Seven hells no, of course it doesn’t but I gotta keep her in check, captain.” Abrall pursed his lips as he cancelled the adjustment he’d made a minute ago. “Show her who’s boss.”
“Let’s keep the non-regulation interference with the engine to a minimum from now on,” Theo said. “I’ll see if we can find any noise cancelling devices on board for you instead.”
“I tried that last night, didn’t work but thanks for the thought, sir.” Abrall picked up a pair of ear inserts to show Theo and then dropped them on the work surface, where they bounced and fell to the deck. “It’ll be fine now I know the secret.”
Theo was torn. On the Nebula Zephyr he would have relieved the man of duty immediately and sent him to the sickbay for evaluation. Here on the Mebsuta C, the tech was the only one qualified to oversee the engines. Theo had had a few hours of training during officer candidate school years ago and he didn’t intend to be tied down here in the guts of the ship for the rest of the cruise. “All right, carry on and let me know if there’s an escalating issue.”
“Sure thing, captain.” Abrall swiveled the chair away from Theo. “I’ve got you covered. I want the sweet bonus for bringing this prize into orbit at Najie Three as much as anyone else. I hope you and the security officer are finding good stuff in the cargo hold.”
“We only scratched the surface,” Jayna said, startling Theo. “I’m sure the captain will keep the crew posted. Shall we go, sir?”
He followed her into the corridor and once the door closed, he said, “I don’t suppose you or Soames are also engine techs?”
As they walked toward the lift to the next level, she shook her head and laughed. “We can fly the thing but no one ever expected us to maintain the engines. Sorry.”
Theo checked the empty corridor, uneasy prickles in his gut. He was half tempted to do an about face and relieve Abrall.
“Engineers are a funny breed,” Jayna said, as if reading his mind. “They get personal about the tech in their safekeeping—I’ve seen it before. He’s a bit off but the ship is running okay and we only have a few more days until we reach the Najie System.”
“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Theo said. “We probably should get back to examining the hold and its contents later today, although I’m concerned about the alien crates. I was searching the old records trying to find the point in time when Herron brought them aboard, see what I could learn, and how alarmed we should be.”
Jayna kept pace with him. “You think those crates are related to the crew’s disappearance?”
“It’s a distinct possibility.” He shrugged. “Or it may mean nothing. I’m highly motivated to keep us from vanishing en route too. I plan to do more research this morning and then we can tackle the hold in the afternoon.”
She nudged his arm with her elbow and grinned. “I’m glad to hear you want to keep us from vanishing. I have plans when we get to Najie Three.”
Immediately a flash of jealousy ran through his mind and heart, intense enough to surprise him. “Hot date?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. He felt Jayna pull away from him as if putting up a force barrier and scrambled to retrieve the ease they’d been experiencing. “Sorry, way out of line on my part. Forget I said anything.”
Jayna merely made an indistinct sound of agreement, unslung her weapon and moved into the cross corridor. “I’m off to patrol then. Let me know when you want to re-enter the hold.” And she was gone.
Cursing himself for being an idiot, Theo continued on to the bridge, wondering why he’d allowed himself to pry into Jayna’s business. As he walked onto the flight deck, he automatically took note of all the readouts and Turner’s attention to their course and plunked himself down in the captain’s chair, satisfied their journey was going well so far, despite a few crew anomalies. At least Turner wasn’t showing any uncharacteristic behavior, unlike Abrall and Paxter.
Jayna strode through the corridors of the ship, wishing she’d handled Theo’s question with composure instead of deflecting and leaving him to stew. Truth was, there was an excellent military museum on Najie Three and she was professionally excited about viewing the rare ordnance, relics and maps in their collection. Through her military contacts she’d gotten special access to the private areas of the museum and was hoping to find a few good nuggets of obscure Sectors military history there. Any new details would enrich the paper she was preparing for a highly regarded network, which was the gold standard information source for active duty and retired military, as well as history buffs interested in the wars the Sectors had fought during its growth and expansion from the vicinity of old Terra, centuries before. She was getting quite a reputation in her field, which provided a satisfying counterbalance to the routine nature of her current job. Keeping the passengers of a luxury cruise ship safe and content was hardly taxing for a person with her experience in the hot zones of the galaxy.
But it’s a safe harbor…and I work with people who understand the invisible scars war leaves on a person. Even the ship’s doctor, to whom she’d reluctantly talked about her PTSD, was a Sectors-famous heroine of a major battle and totally related to where Jayna was coming from.
Theo probably wouldn’t have wanted to hear about the museum anyway. All he wants is a hot time between the sheets.
Which wasn’t fair to the captain and she knew it but she was annoyed with herself and with Theo right now.
Lost in thought she wasn’t paying attention to where her steps had taken her but now she realized she stood at the entrance to the family’s suite. Reaching a quick decision, Jayna opened the portal and stepped inside. She passed through the first room at a rapid pace and entered the second—Angelee’s bedroom, recoiling as she was struck with a blast of cold air.
“Damn vents must be malfunctioning,” she muttered, giving the air system a glare and going further into the room. But the cold seemed concentrated in one spot, which was odd. Goosebumps rising on her arms, Jayna retreated a bit, ending up near the rocking chair, which was slowly rocking back and forth of its own accord. Suddenly a group of books fell of the shelf to the floor and then a set of colored tiles flew out of an open box, arranging themselves on the deck into a warning.
She likes to play with her food. Leave this ship now.
Jayna stared at the floor and the message and tried to tell herself one of her shipmates was playing a prank on her but she knew it wasn’t true. Holding her weapon at the ready, although there was no visible enemy, she headed toward the door, hesitating at the edge of the deadly cold spot. She held her breath and plunged through it, irrationally sure she was going to freeze solid but her momentum carried her into the living room. Stumbling, barely catching herself in time not to fall Jayna sprinted for the main entrance. She had to hit the controls three times before the door slowly opened and her panic grew as she had the feeling someone or something was behind her. There was the soft touch of a breath on the back of her neck and Jayna swore, throwing herself out of the cabin. She pivoted, pulse rifle raised but the doorway was empty.
Just as the panel closed with an ominous snap, she saw someone moving in the cabin but no way in the seven hells was she re-entering the space.
