V – The Diary of Jonathan Flynn
"I found him, it took me more time than i thought i have but i found him. Fourth nexus down, Socialism Tunnels. There he was like a bright and gloroius sunrise i had fogotten i had know. Domai was true to his word. I'm learning a lot about how my friend has lived over the past months, how he has suffered and been exploited.
I am sure Tom would find some clever way to combat it, he seemed of late to be all plans and mascinations but my goal was simple. I would not fail him again. I would recover Earl's body if i had to blast my way right through the heart of the Hive."
Chapter 6: The Death of Unity
Tom
The walk to the bridge had been a terrifying one. Yet the more he thought about it the more confidence he gained. The drones instinctively got out of his way. He had the uniform, he had the ID. There really wasn't anything to say he wasn't exactly where he should be. He considered there might be some kind of ships roster, perhaps Santiago would be able to manipulate that perhaps he was truly safe?
His mind was still deep in thought as his clear plastic guide gave a subtle ping to announce his arrival at the bridge. He pressed the button on the bulkhead door and stepped inside. The room seemed to be an essentially larger version of the first control room they had entered, with the exception that this one was full of people all shouting.
Brandishing his ID scanner in front of him like a talisman he stepped into the room. Initially no-one noticed him and Tom felt truly hopeless, what the hell was he meant to do. Suddenly he realised, someone was shouting, "you! You! Yes you there!" He turned in time to see an angry Asian man march up to him. "Report at once Private!" Remembering himself Tom came to attention, he'd been in the cadets at school, he saluted as best he could. "ID scanner sir, Santiago sent me." "That's Lieutenant Santiago, Private!" The man snapped. "I have called the security teams to the bridge, once they arrive I want you to search the entire ship, we have saboteurs on board." Tom nodded, "Yes Sir." He saluted again for good measure. A man shouted across at them, "Commander Yang, someone has accessed the emergency eject procedures, I think they're prepping one of the colony pods!" Yang turned and bellowed, "override it now!" He rounded on Tom, "we need this parasite found and quickly Private." Tom nodded, "yes sir." Yang continued in a lower tone, "but before you go, there is someone else I wish you to scan." and turned and walked to the far side of the bridge gesturing for Tom to follow. He opened a hatchway at the far side of the room and waited for him to catch up. Seemingly immune to the shouting and clear dismay in the room around him he spoke again, gesturing through to the corridor beyond, "I want to know who he is and what he's doing here. If the scanner doesn't bring anything up, and I suspect it won't, use whatever persuasion you need to to get the answers out of him. I will keep that wet blanket Lal from interfering."
Tom stepped through and immediately recognised the room before him. It was Earls, "get to work private, we are the only ones who can save this initiative from total ruin!" Yang vanished back into the bridge and Tom pressed the button for Earl's cell.
He was quick in his explanation, perhaps too quick but he gave Earl an alias and hopefully that was enough. He stepped out of Earl's cell after what seemed like an eternity. Yang was long gone but before him now were a dozen men all in the same uniform as him. They all had the same dashes on their shoulders which marked them as privates. Tom took a risk, "Right! Split into four teams. I want two aft, two forward sweeping back to the centre. Who has ID scanners?" There was a deathly pause as Tom waited to see what would happen, then three men raised their hands, "good, one per team, stop everyone. You!" he pointed at one man, "go to storage A-1032 and fetch a scanner, join these two and search aft." He quickly dispatched the others. Saving four for himself. "Right you, report to the Commander on the bridge, tell him that the prisoner has checked out as a registered drone. I believe he is harmless. You three accompany me to the engine room we will begin our search there." The men quickly obeyed, yet again Tom thanked his uniform and marched off at the head of his small column of men, trying not to look lost or to show he was checking his tablet frequently.
He'd picked somewhere right at the back of the ship, there was only really the engine room and the hydroponics. He half hoped Santiago would be there and bail him out of this charade. A fellow private passed him a comm device. "I noticed you were missing yours… sir" he finished as Tom gave him a look. "Thank you private…" he paused as Santiago had, "Jackson sir." "Thank you private Jackson, good to know you." The man smiled slightly, "yes sir."
He placed the comm on his collar as Jackson had and heard the beep as he pressed it, hoping it was on he asked, "comm check, come in groups 1 to 3". He realised he'd not assigned numbers and prayed they'd continue playing along. At any moment he could completely sell himself down the river. He breathed again when all three came in one by one confirming. "Report any unusual activity or unknown individuals at once, take no action until confirmed." Confirmation came back at once, well that ought to give Jonny and Liz a chance at least.
He entered the engineering bay and was faced again with the impressive engine room. Santiago hadn't moved. "You men check the lower levels." Santiago turned as he gave the order. Tom could have sworn the briefest smile crossed her face, "Private Matson report!" Tom hurried over to her, saluted, to which she muttered, "you're doing that wrong, palm more out." Tom nodded and changed his salute. "Lieutenant I have four teams checking the whole ship, there is a saboteur accessing the colony pods", Tom spoke quickly and confidently but paused, "err, and we're looking for him." He finished lamely. Santiago nodded, "very good." She turned, "it looks like whoever accessed the cryogenics is already planning their escape. All the better, now we can access the colony pods ourselves and begin to plan our own arrival." Without further explanation she quickly began to arrange names on a roster. Tom could barely understand what was happening but it seemed she was gathering a significant list of names from the cryopods and placing them all in a single place. At the same time she seemed to be pulling together equipment lists, he saw the words Rover and Impact but again her fingers flew too swiftly over the controls.
She turned again to the engineering screen, "go to hydroponics, it's the next section over, we'll need additional seedlings, feel free to interrogate that treehugging biologist if you wish." She smiled and when Tom failed to move she muttered, "dismissed private." Tom saluted, properly this time and called out, "alright men let's move!" Again he swore he heard Santiago chuckle as he left.
Jonathan
"Pssst, Earl its me!" Jonathan placed his face as far out of the narrow pipe as he could. "I know its bloody you you idiot, what are you doing in a pipe!" Jonathan smiled despite himself. "It's all going mad out there, how are you?" Earl tried his best to shrug despite his restraints, "oh you know tortured and restrained, I'm bloody marvellous." Jonathan tried to punch the grate in front of him, "hold on I'll come down and get you out!"
"No, No! Stay where you are, Tom's been along." Jonathon stopped attacking the grill. Earl coughed, "Yeah got himself an SS uniform and everything. Look Tom's given me an ID chip or something, makes it look like I'm part of the crew so I should be ok, they'll likely leave me be. He's off to find you and liz and give you ID's too."
"I've found Liz, she's ok one of the crew is looking after her." Earl scowled, "find that hard to believe, don't trust them. Just find Tom and get an ID, he says we're landing soon so you're gonna need it."
Jonathan nodded. "Ok, I'll look for him, hang in there Earl!" He scurried away as quickly as he could, not hearing Earls muttered complaint at everyone telling him that and not having much bloody choice.
He quickly double backed to Liz, ever time he passed a grill in the pipe revealing the walkway below him he considered dropping out onto the deck and just walking there but more and more people were about and he kept seeing security uniforms rushing to and fro. He wondered how he'd find Tom and how the hell had he gone from being dragged away at knife point to being part of the team!
He arrived above the tree room and peered out. There didn't seem to be anyone about. Moving down carefully he arrived at the hole he'd jumped into previously. Pulling himself out he moved through the ferns and plant life slowly. "Good evening." A deep voice echoed. Jonathan's heart shot into his throat.
He swirled round and spied the man, slightly taller than himself and rounder in the midsection. He was quietly and quickly removing trays from the green lit machines that lined the walls. "I know what you're thinking." He continued unphased, "I really shouldn't be here." He turned quickly looking Jonathan up and down. "But judging by your appearance and the fact you also declined to use the front door, I'd say you don't belong here either."
Jonathan stayed absolutely silent, totally unsure how to proceed. "Allow me to introduce myself, " he continued calmly, "I am Nwabudike Morgan, you no doubt recognise the name. So you see everything that you see here is really mine and I have an absolute right to take it." He smiled, "of course Garland and his henchman would no doubt disagree." He finished taking the last of the trays out and stuffing them into a small metal case. "So here is where you come in my fellow stowaway. I'd like you to take this roster and go wake these people. It needs to be done manually. Get them to the pod that's listed here, they'll do the rest." Jonathan took the pad mutely. "Do this for me and I'll guarantee you a place in the new world. I don't know what you're running from but there is a better life for you on planet, trust me." He smiled again and reaching into his pocket flipped a thin metal rectangle at him. "for your trouble."
Jonathan wasn't sure but he got the distinct impression this was supposed to be money. He nodded silently and walked slowly back towards his pipe. "A brave new world my friend, we will lead the way." Jonathan wondered suddenly if the man was on drugs. He'd already decided to abandon the roster as soon as he was out of sight. He needed to find Tom, to find Liz, to get out of here.
He scuttled back down into the pipe and knocked the pad. A map of the ship suddenly appeared with a small red dot hovering over what he assumed was his proposed destination. Perhaps this thing would be useful. The top bar looked like a search function, it currently had all the names the man Morgan had listed clustered about it. In the dark security of his pipe he tapped the pad and brought up a keyboard. If he's part of the team, maybe he's on the map, Jonathan reasoned as he entered T-O-M into the pad. Over two thousand responses came back. He cursed under his breath. 'Thomas' then, a little under two thousand, why hadn't he asked his full bloody name! A little green symbol hovered near three of them. He tapped it and the word "active" hovered briefly above the name.
Two thousand Toms and only three active. Two it appeared were crawling in engineering spaces above the cryogenic bays and the other was currently on the bridge. That made his mind up, he started crawling through the pipe, back towards Earl, the bridge, and hopefully a way out of here. He'd just have to hope Liz's savior would come through for her.
Liz
Deirdre rushed up the corridor. Liz couldn't help but notice people were moving faster and faster. There was a distinct note of panic in almost every face. Well except the ones in yellow jump suits who seemed for the most part indifferent to their surroundings. They finally entered a large room which looked a lot like the room they'd lost Earl in. Liz hoped he was ok, she wondered about all of them, hopefully she'd made the right choice.
"Oh thank god you're here!" A woman with fiery red hair came rushing over to Deirdre, "sister I have terrible news!" Deirdre took the woman's arms in a half hug reassuring her, "what is it Miriam?" "Captain Garland is dead! They are saying he was assassinated!" Liz could see Deirdre was upset by the news, she seemed suddenly to weaken before her eyes. She wanted to reach out to her but kept as still as she could. "Do they know who did it?" Dierdre asked quietly. Miriam looked over to Yang and Lal who were amidst a storm of voices arguing vehemently. "It's a drone, they call him Earl. Lal wants to put him on trial, I think Zakharov wants to dissect him. Yang at least is being sensible, he wants to pass righteous sentence on that murderer!" Deirdre wiped a tear from her cheek, "calm sister, violence cannot beget violence." Miriam continued angrily, "but surely he must be avenged sister. Garland was the glue that stuck us all together, he was Unity! Now what will we do?"
At this point an angry looking woman in a black security uniform marched onto the deck followed quickly by an equally looking angry man sporting a black eye. "Where is the Captain?" She demanded. From the other side of the room Yang responded, "he is slain!" The woman seemed to take this calmly. "Commander Yang I have captured our saboteur." She gestured to the man beside her drawing everyone's attention to him. There was a sudden silence. "Morgan?" Yang muttered incredulously.
Morgan straightened his jacket and stepped forward. "Yes. I had always intended to join you, the fact that I was not 'elected' as a member of this crew hardly seemed reason not to go. Trust me ladies and gentlemen I know enough about government process to know how selection really works. I am here with a solution." He beamed at the assembled crowd. "As defacto owner of this vessel I propose myself for the position of Captain and request that all preparations be made to land immediately on Chiron."
The silence was leaden. Suddenly a dozen voices all began at once, almost all in outrage at the suggestion. Lal at last called order. "Sir this is a United Nations effort and control will revert to the senior officer on board. I believe that is yourself Deirdre." He gestured to Deirdre and Liz's eyes shot to the floor eager not to be spotted. "Might I suggest Commander that we ascertain the status of the ship and put a hold to any plans or investigations of the good captain's unfortunate demise."
This last statement sparked the fury of the debate again and at last Santiago rested conversation back to her. "I have assessed the engines and can confirm we have damage to the reactor. I cannot say who is to blame at this time," she made a poignant look toward Morgan" but simply continuing as normal is no longer an option. This ship is uncontrollable at this stage." A young looking pilot at the controls spoke up addressing Deirdre, "that's right commander, at this stage we're as good as dead in the water. We've full control over sensors and launch bays, cryogenics is ok but guidance and propulsion are fried. We've no rudder."
Yang suddenly took over, "So as you can see." He addressed the whole room, "we have no propulsion, no guidance and a proven saboteur aboard, not to mention a murderer restrained in the next room. We are one malfunction short of disaster. It is time for swift action. We do not have the facilities for United Nations dithering. We must punish Captain Garland's assassin and begin preparation for our landing on Chiron!" Miriam and many others agreed nosily despite Lal's attempts to contradict him.
Liz raised her head slightly, watching all the people shouting and arguing. Around the edge of the bridge an increasing number of silent men in black uniforms had appeared. They now seemed to outnumber those in the lighter jumpsuits in the bridges centre. She suddenly spotted Tom, stood amongst them looking distinctly nervous, baton in hand. Yang continued, his proclamation now in full swing. "This is an emergency, as such I assume full responsibility for the safety of this ship and its crew." He nodded to Tom who, looking deathly pale nodded to the man to his right. The security staff quickly advanced and placed themselves around Yang. "My first act will not be to execute the assassin as I would like, I assume the Captain's responsibility for fair treatment. He will be nerve stapled as a defective drone and returned to his basic parameters. All officers are to return to temporary quarters and the decks are to be cleared whilst we secure the ship against further sabotage and prepare pods for launch."
Yang gave swift direction to the soldiers nearest to him who marched quickly toward Earl's room. Lal was ushered out amongst shouted protests and even those who had supported him a moment ago looked taken aback by the abrupt coup. Tom looked ready to pass out. Liz stared at him anxiously and as she did she noticed the glint of metal in the hand of the woman next to him, Santiago. It appeared in her hand just above the pocket and then was gone. Suddenly a great groan rumbled through the ship followed by a heavy bang that threw them all sideways.
Voices cried out again, "the engines, the reactor has failed!" "Fire reported in the hydroponics bay!" A body thumped into her. It was Deirdre, moving suddenly clumsily. Her eyes wide with panic, "come on! That room is everything!"
They fled out of the nearest door, Liz stared straight into Toms' eyes, he was already turning toward the corridor with Earl's room, over all the shouting and rushing Liz screamed, "save him!" Then fled down the corridor with Deirdre.
She could not have been prepared for the sight of the hydroponics. Flames spouted from every surface and the once green machines now belched smoke and orange light. Deirdre rushed straight into the blaze, "the pines, we must save the pines!" Liz jumped up and down on the spot, desperate not to have to rush into the flames after her.
Seeing shadows behind her she called out for help. A group of terrified looking drones and technicians peering around the bulkhead. Remembering suddenly Tom in his military uniform she bellowed in as strong a voice as she could, "don't just stand there, help the lady!" She grabbed the nearest drone and threw them forward, rushing with them to Deirdre's side. Drawing level with her she screamed over the roar of the flames, "what do we do!" Deirdre, now covered in grey ash and coughing thrust three white trays into her hands, "save these above all else!" Deirdre was tapping franticly at a panel, name after name appeared and vanished on the screen, all sent to a location glowing green on the bright display. "There." She turned to the frightened drones many of whom had instinctively grabbed something, mimicking Liz's action. "Come friends, we can't stay here any longer, there is an escape pod put aside for us, it's time to leave.