Midway: Chapter 31

  Maharet was quite a sight to see in the galley off of the Dining Hall.  There she was, practically ancient with wrinkled brown Arab skin and bone white hair, one of the now two most powerful figures in their cosmic community, peeling thirty pounds of carrots one by one.  It was not an unusual sight for him to see, but it was nevertheless one Johannes perpetually found amusing and again had to actively prevent himself from chuckling at the sight.  Adding to the motif was her PANE glasses on which she appeared to be watching some program while she worked the carrots.

  “Having fun?” he asked jokingly.  They were both still in shock over Anaru’s death which was slowly dissipating into simple depression.  He was trying to lighten the mood, but wasn’t having much luck with it.  It was just too soon.

  “Oh bite it Joh,” she snarled back as she paused her programs and thought her PANEs to full transparency and left them on while she worked.  She’d come to enjoy kitchen duties over the years, but the tedious parts like this could still get to her sometimes, and she was especially not enjoying herself today.

  “Whoa there Mahr, I come in peace…”

  “I’m sorry… what do you want?” she asked as she returned to her peeling and then paused to point a carrot at him derisively.  “Don’t suppose you want to give me a hand?”  Johannes grabbed a carrot and second peeler, and then sat down beside her.

  “So, are you having any luck figuring out who the other victims were?” she asked.

  “I’m afraid not,” Johannes responded in dismay.  “Everyone’s still preoccupied with Anaru’s death of course… and it’s very delicate work.   You have to remember that most people still don’t know what the motivation for the murder was in the first place.  I’m having to go to every male on the ship individually and explain it to them, and I still can’t ever be sure that they wouldn’t still deny it even after I ask, just out of embarrassment or shame or something.  I also still can’t find any clues in the scroll journal, so there’s no help there either.  It’s definitely slow going.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that Joh… I definitely don’t envy you the task.”

  “Neither do I, believe me…”

  The two sat in silence for several minutes, peeling carrots together in each other’s company.   Finally, Johannes said: “Well, I know neither of us want to talk about it Mahr… but we do need to start thinking about the election for a new captain.”

  “I know, I know…” she sighed.

  “So do you have anyone in mind to endorse?” Johannes asked her.  “To be honest, nobody really stands out for me out of all the qualified people, but at the same time I haven’t been thinking about it much… or at all really.  I mean I know we have to pick someone, but…”

  “…but Anaru was irreplaceable, I know.”  Maharet had finished his sentence, and had done so accurately.  “I’ve been avoiding thinking about it myself.  Oh well, we should come up with a short list of favourites who we want to encourage to run at least.  K’uuna would be the obvious choice since he was Anaru’s executive officer.   He’s certainly got the experience on the bridge, and he’s the appropriate age.”

  “Yeah, he does have the experience… but he’s a dedicated family man.  I’d hate to put him in a position where he’d have to abandon his family if an emergency ever came up… Oh well, put him on the list anyways.”

  “That’s something to consider you know,” Maharet offered.

  “What is?”

  “Well, do we want somebody who can adequately take over the role immediately and completely, or like Anaru himself should we be hoping for someone much younger and maybe less experienced, but someone who can be groomed to the role, and have them take on increasing responsibilities as they mature,” Maharet asked.

  “Hunh.  That’s a good point…  Well, Alissa would probably be a good candidate if that was where we wanted to go… her husband Nusrah too in fact.  Both of them are talented young people who’ve shown tertiary interest in command.  That could work.  You know, Dhika would fit into that category as well.”

  “Yes I know, but since she’s my daughter I thought I should let you bring her up.”  Johannes nodded his understanding.  He appreciated the gesture.

  A ship wide communication suddenly cut into their conversation over the loudspeakers in the galley.  It was K’uuna, who was on duty on the bridge as far as either of them knew.  “ALL HANDS, EMERGENCY!!!  THE BRIDGE IS UNDER ATTACK BY-“ and that was it, the communication was cut short.  Johannes and Maharet looked at each other, simply confused at first and then as the seconds ticked by they processed what they’d heard.  There had been no warning, nor had there been any indication that something was wrong beforehand.  There was no drill scheduled, K’uuna wouldn’t pull one on his own initiative, and he certainly wouldn’t be so careless as to do it in such a theatrical manner.  No, something had to be very wrong.  They both scrambled to their feet and headed for the door as it dawned on them that something must indeed be very very wrong.

   

  Dhika was waiting for them in the corridor about ten meters back from the door to the bridge when they arrived, and Alissa arrived only a few seconds later, both of whom Johannes and Maharet had summoned as they themselves had headed for the bridge.   “I’ve been waiting for you,” Dhika answered to the implied question she perceived.  “I can’t get anything useful out of the surveillance system to see who went in there before this happened.  The last couple hours of recordings from the entire ship have been erased and I’m not getting any data from inside the bridge.  I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything about what’s going on in there…” she gestured towards the bridge door.

  “Obviously we’ve tried communicating with the bridge,” Maharet informed her daughter, “but there’s no response.  We have no idea what happened or what’s going on in there, and now you tell me we’re totally blind?  Wonderful.”

  “I suppose we could try knocking,” Alissa offered with her characteristically dry and dark sense of humour.

  “Actually you’re right,” Johannes admitted, and then motioned with his hand for the others to stay back as he started moving down the corridor, but his hand was grabbed by someone.  Looking back he saw that it was Alissa.

  “No Johannes, let me go.”  Johannes was going to protest.  He would have at least tried if it had been anyone else, but Alissa was unique.  She was their keeper of combat; she had studied military history and tactics, and was well trained in all kinds of martial arts and hand to hand combat as well as with weaponry.  This was the first time in her life her training had ever been remotely useful.

  “Right…” he replied meekly, “alright,” he then conceded fully.

  At that, Alissa changed her whole way of being from one of simple confidence and presence, to one of stealth with a precise control of her movements.  She slinked along the bulkhead down the corridor, and still pressed against the wall, she loudly knocked three times against the heavy blast door.  There was no response after a few moments, and then after half a minute.  Alissa looked back at the other three and shrugged, with them all simply shrugging back at her.  She gave five more heavy knocks with her fist, but again there was nothing.  She shrugged again, this time more to herself than to anyone else, and then slinked her way back down the corridor, resuming her normal composure as she returned.

  “Nothing,” she said, “and I couldn’t hear a thing from within.  I didn’t really expect to be able to through a door that thick though.”

  “What now?” Johannes asked, basically fielding any suggestions from anyone who might have one.

  “Well, now we have to figure out who’s in there,” Dhika answered.

  Maharet closed her eyes and a few moments later she spoke, and her voice came over the loudspeakers of the entire ship.  “Attention.  Every crew member, every person on board, whether you are able to or not, it is absolutely required that you drop whatever you are doing and report to the mess hall immediately for a full head count.  This is not a request.  It is an order on the authority of Johannes and myself.  This should not take long, but it is absolutely mandatory.”  She opened her eyes and turned to the others.   “There we go.”

  “Good idea,” Johannes offered, “but Dhika, please set up remote surveillance cameras out here we can monitor with our scrolls, alright?  I want to know if anyone comes out or even approaches the door.”  

  “Understood.”

   

  The mess hall was packed.  Usually when everyone assembled in it there was still a skeleton crew elsewhere tending to essential duties, but these were exceptional circumstances, and everything had been locked down so the entire crew could be here at once.  It was crowded, but the room was designed to be able to accommodate a full three hundred people if necessary, even if not at the paramount of comfort.

  There was a negative feeling in the large room which was a toxic combination of anxiety and confusion.  Johannes, Maharet, Dhika, and Alissa stood on the stage at the far end of the hall.   Johannes held up his arms, asking for the room to be quiet.  When that failed, Maharet shouted out for them all to be silent with an authority and force which was unusual to be heard from her.  “SILENCE!!!”

  The chatter began to abate, and when the room had sufficiently quieted down, Johannes spoke and addressed the crowd.  “Friends, family, you all heard the mysterious transmission from the bridge.   We went there and found the door firmly secured.  We attempted to communicate with whoever is inside but without any success.  As Maharet said, we are here to do a headcount of the crew to figure out who is absent, which will hopefully point out for us who is behind this.”

  Johannes held up his fully deployed medium scroll and waved it slowly before the crowd.  “We have already struck from the list the four of us and the three people staffing the bridge at the time of the transmission and for the record, I also stopped by Uzodimma’s suite on the way here to also confirm that he was still there.  Let’s begin.”

  And so they did.   One at a time, Johannes would call out someone’s name, and they would rise if seated and raise their hands at which point he would confirm they were in fact this person and then strike them off the list, two hundred and ninety times in a row.  Dhika was grateful to see Tycho there, which spared them going to his quarters.  And as far as she knew this was the first time he’d left his suite since the accident a week ago.  He didn’t look at her or anyone else for that matter, he just leaned against the wall in a corner of the room and looked at the floor.

  Johannes got to the end of the list, and everyone was accounted for.  He looked back at Maharet and Dhika and whispered “that’s everyone.”

  “What do we do now?” Maharet whispered back.

  “I have no idea…” Johannes answered anxiously as he turned back to look out on the crowd.

  “Johannes!” Dhika exclaimed with a mixture of excitement and satisfaction at probably having solved the puzzle, but also mixed with the utter horror of the solution’s implications.  “The simulants!” she hissed.

  Johannes eyes widened and gob smacked, he turned around to look at Dhika with an open mouth, and a dreadful understanding.