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Breathing hard, Jayna leaned against the bulkhead and tried to regain her self-control. “This is so messed up,” she said out loud. “You’ve got too much imagination for your own good. It was a waking nightmare. Or some weird kind of PTSD flashback. Yeah, that has to be it.”
As she walked away from the area, Jayna tried to convince herself and failed. She headed for the bridge, wanting to be with other people as soon as possible, which also wasn’t like her.
Chapter Four
Theo tried to quell his rising excitement. He’d finally reached the spot in the computer’s memory where the original captain of the Mebsuta C had his records stored. There’d been all kinds of odd gaps and corrupted spots, as if someone had clumsily tried to destroy the entire core or perhaps there’d been a major radiation storm—but surprisingly large fragments had survived. Herron had definitely been onto something, something big but the details were maddeningly lacking. There were some co-ordinates and mentions of a mysterious message, which seemed to have been a call for help. Theo figured he’d have to take time and plot the reverse course to the point of origin for the distress call, although it had been years since he’d had to do such a thing manually. Probably not since the Academy in fact.
Next minute he blinked in astonishment. There was a fragment of vid in the file. He glanced at Turner, studying her controls and readouts. Might not be the best idea to play it in front of anyone else until he’d seen the contents. “You can take a break, lieutenant,” he said. “I’ve got the helm.”
Surprise on her face, she swiveled her chair so she could look at him. “A break, sir?”
Theo waved vaguely toward the bridge door. “Sure. Come back in fifteen.”
Reluctantly she rose from her seat. “I—I’m not too crazy about wandering this ship on my own, sir. It’s kinda spooky, all the empty corridors.”
Astonished, he was at a loss for words. Turner was ex-military and had seen limited combat and now she was voicing fear of the deserted ship? Impatient to check the video he’d located, he adopted a bracing tone. “You’ll be fine, lieutenant. Head to the wardroom and grab a snack.”
With slow steps she headed toward the portal. Having second thoughts, watching her demeanor, Theo opened his mouth to rescind the order but at that moment Jayne entered the bridge. “Just in time,” he said to her. “Can you escort Lt. Turner to the wardroom for a break?”
Eyebrows raised, Jayna blinked. “Of course, sir. Come on, lieutenant, the Nebula Zephyr’s chef sent all kinds of goodies.”
The two women left the bridge together and Theo figured they’d be comparing notes all the way to the lower level on why he was suddenly clearing the bridge. Command prerogative. Leaning forward, he keyed the proper code and a hologram sprang to life in the center of the bridge. Herron and his wife stood close to where Theo himself now sat and were apparently in mid argument. The captain was gesturing and his wife had her hands on her hips, jaw clenched and brows drawn together as if impatient to dispute him. There was no audio and the image flickered in and out.
Frustrated now because he didn’t read lips, Theo left his chair and circled the holo. He took note of the fact Herron clutched an old-fashioned notebook in his left hand.
“—risk the ship on this wild goose chase,” the wife said loudly.
“I told you, this could be the biggest windfall in the history of the Sectors.”
“Or it could be nothing,” she said. “And then we’ll have wasted fuel and time and maybe even blown our shipping deadlines. We don’t have the credits to pay fines and fees, Wil. You know that.”
“If this is what she says it is, we’ll have no credit issues ever again. You heard the broadcast for yourself—why the skepticism?”
Rubbing her arms, she gave a shrug. “It seems too good to be true. Why hasn’t anyone else ever found this before we came along? And you know the government will be all over us if we do find what you’re expecting. We might not even get a reward.”
Hugging the notebook tight, Herron shook his head. “No authorities. I’ll line up private buyers.”
“You can’t trust those people!” Her alarm was immediate. “Remember the trouble we had before, when we smuggled?—”
The video froze and Theo dashed to his chair to see what he could do, if anything. There was a crackling sound, the ship rocked a bit and a thin wisp of smoke spiraled up from the main computer station to his left. The vid was gone as if it had never existed. Theo swore and rushed to the helm, seating himself and checking the readouts. Everything was reporting as normal. “This is one fucked up vessel,” he muttered to himself.
The portal opened behind him and Jayna and Lt. Turner entered. “Did you feel that?” Jayna asked.
He nodded, projecting confidence he didn’t entirely possess. “Happens in hyperspace from time to time. Even the Nebula Zephyr encounters ripples but she’s so big we rarely detect them except on the instruments.”
“Is something burning?” Turner sniffed the air and stepped to the computer bank. “Looks like we have a short here, sir. Fire suppression activated.” She tried entering a few commands and shook her head. “No joy—the archive portion appears to have shorted out completely. Other functions remain nominal fortunately.”
“Thank you, lieutenant. You can take over here now if you’re ready.” Theo stood and stepped aside for her.
“I’m sorry for whoever buys her from the salvage broker,” Jayna said. “The Mebsuta C is obviously not a happy ship, whatever happened to her crew.”
“We just have to get her safely to Najie Three.” Theo kept his tone brisk. “I’m going to the old captain’s cabin and I need you to accompany me. I want to look for something—we haven’t done a thorough search in there yet.”
He left the bridge, Jayna right behind him, excitement rising in his gut. If he could find the notebook Herron had kept such a tight grip on, he might be able to learn at least a little of what he wanted to know.
Not the captain’s cabin. Jayna’s min d was in a more chaotic state than she liked and every fiber of her being was in revolt against the idea of stepping into the space again. It was her duty to obey orders though and the more she considered the question, the more she convinced herself she’d imagined the whole episode. But maybe Theo would let her stand guard outside. She adjusted her pulse rifle and realized she’d never heard from Soames this morning. The silence wasn’t like him, although she was sure he was on duty, making his rounds of the lengthy, empty corridors. It wasn’t in character for her not to have checked in with him either. She sighed. “This ship is getting to all of us.”
“What do you mean?”
