Lieutenant Washington sat alone in the conference room, waiting. In her mind, she reviewed all the information she had gathered during the mission, and a theory began to take form. She had had an odd feeling about Doctor Mumford from the start and was now sure she saw through him. Only one detail was missing, the final proof that the commander would hopefully give her right away.
As if on cue, he stepped through the door. "I'm sorry you had to wait, but there's a lot of confusion around here." He took a chair and sat across from her. "What is it that you're so anxious to tell me right now?"
"Sir," she began, "I have reason to believe that Doctor Mumford is not who he says he is."
Commander Lance raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I'm listening."
"He is Doctor Vicerus. The scientist responsible for what happened at the research station."
Her superior drew in a sharp breath. "I hope you have proof of that."
"Let's start with this," Washington said, calling up the three video files Private Webber had given her while waiting for pickup on the wall screen. The Commander watched the clips and nodded. "So far so good. Vicerus was gone and the disease spread. But what makes you think he stayed on the station? That would have been suicide."
"On my way to the communications-facility, I came across a dead body. Someone who no longer wore clothes. And the head was missing too. But it was a clean cut, which doesn't add up to the injuries inflicted by the monsters at the facility. In my opinion he died by human hands." Washington opened the photo of the corpse she had taken onto the screen. "Sir, I strongly suspect this is the real Quentin Mumford. Doctor Vicerus probably saved him from the creatures and heard from him that rescue is already on the way. Vicerus could have seen that as a chance and appropriated the false identity to let us take him with him."
Commander Lance nodded thoughtfully several times. "It sounds plausible. That would also explain his condition. He is doing great, although he is said to have been infected. Webber, on the other hand, is in the infirmary. Maybe he has an antidote..."
"We don't know whether he was really bitten, nobody looked at the wound too closely," Washington added.
"But definitive proof is still missing," the Commander replied.
"I hope you can give that to me. I've tried to access personnel files at the research station, but have been denied access. However, you should have gotten the one from the crashed ship, right? There should be a photo of the real Doctor Mumford in his files."
Lance activated his omni tool, tapped around for a moment, and then brought up the appropriate file on the wall screen. The picture showed a young man in his thirties who looked very different from the alleged Quentin Mumford they had on board.
Without hesitating any longer, the commander stood up and almost stormed out of the room. Washington followed him.
"Any idea where he is right now?" he asked while banging on the elevator call button.
"He should still be down in the landing bay."
"Good, then we can lock him up in the holding cell without any problems."
They stood in the hallway for two more minutes before realizing something was wrong. The commander hit the call button again, but nothing happened. Suddenly the light around them went out too. It was pitch-dark aboard the Rome.
"Commander Lance, we have a problem," Tyk said over the ship's loudspeakers.
"I noticed. What's our status?"
"Someone has hacked into the ship's network," the pilot replied. "Life support is unaffected, but -" The transmission cut off mid-sentence.
"So now he also hacked the communication," Washington stated matter-of-factly.
"He's good. Even the systems for emergencies have to be offline, otherwise we would at least have light here," the commander growled. Kara could hear him moving to the left and followed him.
"What are we going to do now, sir?"
"You take the ladders to the cargo deck and look for the doctor. I'll go to the bridge and see what I can do from there to get the ship back under our control."
Someone was shining a flashlight at her from behind.
"Commander?" Private Vonn asked. "Van Hagen sent me. I am to bring you my weapon so that you may have some light."
"Very good, pass it on to Lieutenant Washington."
Kara gratefully accepted the gun with the attached lamp.
"Shine this way please," the commander said, and Washington aimed the beam at the piece of wall he meant. He tugged at two handles mounted on it and unclipped the panel. Beyond was an unlit, narrow tunnel with a ladder leading through all levels of the Rome.
"Get on your way, Washington. The ladder ends close to the armory."
"Understood, sir."
She slid feet first onto the ladder and began her descent. She kept the gun in hand to get some light in the tube. It was wide enough for a marine to fit through, but still felt a bit cramped. She climbed rung by rung until she finally took her foot off the last one and stood on a grating. She scanned the walls around her and spotted the hatch she could climb out through. With a gentle push t slid aside and Lieutenant Washington slipped through as quietly as possible.
On the other side, the armory lay still before her. She crept to the unlocked door and listened for a moment, but she couldn't hear anything from the hangar either. She caught her breath as she slid the door open and the light from her pistol lit up the hangar somewhat. The huge gate stood open, but nothing of the ship's atmosphere escaped through the protection of the barrier. The brightness coming from Antibaar due to solar radiation illuminated the interior of the ship a little bit, and it was enough to see that one of the shuttles was missing. Doctor Viscerus was gone.
Three hours later, all of the Rome's systems were intact again. Lieutenant Washington sat with the other officers and the commander in the conference room, where they were in the process of clarifying the incident.
"So you brought a dangerous criminal to us on board and are therefore responsible for the system failure and the death of Corporal Langner?" Van Hagen said in a scathing voice after Kara had summarized their experiences. She pursed her lips. Corporal Jeffrey Langner had been working as an engineer on board and had been busy inspecting the shuttles when Doctor Vicerus surprised and killed him.
"Van Hagen!" Commander Lance retorted sharply. "She had no way of knowing who he was, and even if we had, we would have taken him on board to arrest him. We are all responsible for Corporal Langner's death. In the chaos on board no one was keeping a close eye on Doctor Vicerus."
Kara felt a little uncomfortable with the commander protecting her like that, because she was perfectly capable of defending herself. But he always stood up for his subordinates, especially when the lieutenant commander wanted to bully someone. Van Hagen was by no means his choice for the XO post.
"What did high command say about all this?" Lieutenant Dexter asked, rubbing his bald head.
Commander Lance replied, "They've put out an APB for Vicerus, but I don't think they'll find him that easily. I was sent his file. He's considered to be quite a smart guy, an expert in various fields of bionics and tech, as we all noticed. The ship's safeguarding systems didn't seem to have been much of a challenge for him."
"The ultimate villain," Lieutenant August murmured. "Equipped with everything you need."
"He was originally committed to the Alliance, but something seems to have changed his mind," the Commander continued.
"But why the attack on the laboratory on Antibaar? What was he trying to achieve with that?" Lieutenant Perkov asked.
They were silent for a moment before Lance spoke again. "Only he can tell us that. But whatever he plans to do next can't be good."
"All the more important that he is found quickly. If he unleashes something like Antibaar in larger settlements, I don't even want to imagine what will happen," Lieutenant Washington said with concern. Noone knew what to reply.