Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine
Connor was speeding aft, scrolling through the damage report coming through on his pocket computer, when he ran into Drew. The two of them went to the deck just past the hatch to the cabin she shared with Aubriella.
The skinny engineer looked up from the deck wide-eyed. “Sorry!”
“You okay?” Connor got to his feet and helped her up.
“Yeah. There’s a hull breach in—”
“—in the infirmary, I know.” He powered the alarm off and jogged past the crew quarters to the airlock hatch that connected the midship section to the infirmary at the back. In the silence, the alarm seemed to remain.
Drew ran with him. “Anyone inside?”
Connor checked the computer. “Lem, but he’s on the lower deck.”
“That’s good. Right?”
“He’s fine.” Connor placed a hand on the inner airlock door: no heat. “All right—whatever happened wasn’t a fire.”
The engineer tapped her screen. “I’ve got access to a camera. It looks good beyond the airlock.”
“That leaves convalescence and supplies storage.”
“I can’t access anything in convalescence. I think that’s the breach.” She typed in the override code on the airlock, then smirked at Connor when the hatch opened. “Really? You didn’t change the codes?”
“Um—we never could hire a security officer.”
“Never wanted to, you mean.”
“Isn’t that what I said?”
Inside the airlock, four environment suits hung from metal racks. Over the years, the tight space had taken on the smells of the infirmary—pungent cleaners and alcohol. There was a strange coolness, too, but it wasn’t like the haunting and inexplicable cold of Selen’s cabin.
They each dressed in one, helmets held at the ready, then entered the upper deck part of the infirmary. To their right, a ramp led down to the main infirmary.
Lem waved from the base of the ramp. “You have found the problem?”
Connor pointed to the starboard side. “Convalescence.”
“How fortunate we rarely have anyone in there.”
“Very fortunate.”
Drew went past, her environment suit boots clanking on the deck. She stopped at the hatch to the convalescence compartment and repeated Connor’s check for heat.
She shook her head. “No heat. I think for now, we just want to put a temporary seal on the hatch.”
It wasn’t like anyone but Lem came into the area. “We’ll need to check the hull at some point.”
“I’ll do that.”
“We. Two people. Always two people on a job like that.”
“O-okay. I thought you’d be too busy.”
“I’m your partner—stuck at the hip. Got it?”
She nodded rapidly. “I’ll get the seal on. When do you want to try the repair?”
“Soon. Not yet. I don’t like the timing of this.”
“You mean like the way it happened now, so soon after the coolant pipe?”
“Doesn’t it strike you as odd? What could cause it? A hull breach? Did you get a report of deflectors failing?”
“No.” The engineer dug inside her environment suit for her pocket computer. “Nothing.”
“What are the odds a section of the hull just gives out?”
“Smaller than the odds of a coolant pipe giving out.”
“I thought as much. Seal the door. Log the problem. Check to see if there’s a good camera angle on the section of hull that’s breached.”
Drew’s face looked drawn. “Seal, log, camera angle—got it.”
“If it looks like we can patch it without too much drama, get the gear ready for tomorrow. If there’s a complication, let me know.”
“Ready the gear for tomorrow, look for complication—got it.”
Connor almost felt bad at the look in her eyes: just short of panic.
He patted her on the shoulder. “We’ll knock this out in no time.”
That seemed to relax her. “I’ve got to start work on the shuttle landing gear. Yemi said he’ll help with it.”
“Is that critical? Can it wait until tomorrow. I can help.”
“Oh, it’s not critical. I think—it could be fun, actually. You okay if I work with him? It’s sort of training.”
“That’s fine.”
They replaced the environment suits in the airlock, then Drew headed down to the lower deck engineering section.
Selen was watching Connor from the passageway just outside her quarters. Her stare froze him in place.
Was she expecting him to come back to her cabin? He couldn’t.
She slipped back inside, and the hatch closed.
The feeling that he’d been frozen in place disappeared.
Blaming Toshiko for the change in the relationship—a strange one between a commander and her second to begin with—was irresponsible for Selen.
That was putting it nicely.
A hatch on the port side opened, and Mosiah stuck his head out and glanced around, finally settling on Connor. “What was that alarm?”
Connor moseyed forward. “Hull breach. It’s under control.”
“Hull breach?” The old man’s bushy white eyebrows bunched. “How’s that happen?”
“That’s our question. We’ll figure it out.”
“Is it safe for me to head down to the lounge? I hear you’ve got a VR booth and thought I might replay some of those dancers from the Azure Crane.”
“You recorded them?”
“You can buy them. They know they’re being recorded.”
“I’ll walk you down there.”
Connor led the older man past the cold spot outside Selen’s cabin, through the open airlock separating crew quarters from the bridge and escape capsules, then down the ladder tube. When they were at the VR booth, Connor showed how to open it.
Mosiah smiled. “Not too bad…maybe a little old. Smells like it gets a lot of use.”
“It auto cleans and disinfects. It’s one of the few things we splurge on.”
“Keep the crew happy, and the ship stays afloat. Is that it?”
“That’s one way of seeing it.” Connor pulled the helmet out, then a sanitizing cloth. It felt wrong handing the helmet to someone else. He’d just been in it not that long ago, him and Toshiko on the river.
The old man cleaned the helmet with practiced efficiency. “You’re thinking about asking me a question.”
“I am?”
“It’s in your eyes. Maybe… You want to know how I know Selen.”
Connor tried not to let his unease show. He’d been rolling a bunch of questions around in his head, but that one was foremost in his mind. “She hasn’t talked about it.”
“She will. Give her time.” Mosiah sniffed inside the helmet and seemed satisfied it was clean. He braced it on a hip. “It was years ago. She was younger. Obviously she wasn’t as experienced. I didn’t actually select her. Her bid was aggressive. I think she needed the money, and I wasn’t picky.”
“That’s not a particularly glowing review.”
“Oh…” The old man rubbed the scar around his neck. “I think the world of her. I was in a prison, facing execution. She saved my life.”
Why wouldn’t she talk about something like that? “Who’d you piss off?”
“People. Crazy people. You can never really trust anyone, you know.”
“Is that what this job is? Another rescue of some sort?”
“Hm? Oh. You know, that’s a good way to put it. Protection more than rescue, but it’s all the same.”
“Protection? Are those people coming for you again?”
“No. That’s a good guess.” Mosiah’s lips twisted. “But they’re gone now.”
“So, this rescue she did wasn’t from this planet we’re going to?”
“Absolutely not.” The old man squinted, as if remembering some terrible incident or pain. “This planet and I have a connection that precedes your captain’s involvement in my life.”
The crates… “When you came here before, you took something.”
“That’s quite the deduction. I had no idea you were so clever.”
“She’s never been here, then?”
Mosiah shook his head slowly. “Very few people visit this planet more than once, Mr. Rattakul. In fact, I think it’s quite possible I may be the last person alive who can lay claim to that accomplishment. And I do not expect I’ll leave when I’m done.”