Episode 65

The Nature of the Emergency

“What was the nature of the emergency, Chief?”

“Gas. A deadly, fast-acting poison gas,” Barngate said without hesitation. “Which I've already told Captain Hull, Doctor Benbow, Captain Pedrattus, and anyone else who has been willing to listen.”

“Yes, we'd worked that out, but it was good to have your confirmation. How was it able to infiltrate the entire ECS system before the various bulkheads were sealed off?”

“I don't know. The entire ship was suddenly flooded,” Barngate explained. “It happened all at once.”

“That sudden?” asked York.

Barngate nodded. “It was distributed through the ECS system. It must have been, although later, when we went down there in suits and flushed the system, there was no sign of anything unusual there.”

“What kind of gas was it?”

“I have no idea.” Barngate turned, looking toward the maintence tech. “You'll have to ask Hing Poy. He had the watch on the environmental system at the time.”

“Mr. Poy?” York gazed at the lean, dark face.

Hing Poy shook his head. “I wasn't on it at the time.”

She raised her eyebrows. Even so, his relaxed admission didn't strike her as the sign of a guilty conscience.

“Joe Peterson took the watch for me,” he said. “I was entered for the ship's Krabacci championship and was playing some practice games. We had an understanding with Chief Harifin. He didn't mind who took what watch, so long as we were covered.”

“Krabacci?” York nodded. “I hear they have a player of note aboard Draco here. Singkai, he's one of the maintenance technicians. You might like to meet him.”

Hing Poy smiled broadly. “I know of Lu Singkai, Miss York. Every Krabacci player in the fleet does. I would like very much to play him.”

“Perhaps that can be arranged,” York said. “Now, what are the duties of the man on ECS watch?”

“Just to check the system, take periodic readings and make certain everything's working. It's all heavily automated. There's seldom any trouble.”

“That sounds easy enough,” York assented. “Who were you playing with, Hing?”

“Lee Chun.” He gestured to the Kangan man sitting next to him.

“Was anyone else present?”

“Yes, sir. Wooten there.” He indicated a slender young man with a thin, pale face and receding hairline.

“Wooten?”

“George Wooten, communication technician, ma'am” Wooten answered in a clear, high-pitched voice. “I was there. They was playing Krabacci, just like they said.”

“Thank you,” York acknowledged. He turned back to Hing Poy. “What kind of gas was it, Mr. Poy?”

“I don't know. It was nothing I could identify.”

“Then you don't store it?”

“No, sir. We don't store nothing like that.”

“Mr. Chun?” She switched her attention to the other krabacci player.

“I have no idea, Miss York!”

York turned to Captain Hull. “Do you know of any poisonous gas that a ship like the Rigel might store?”

“Nothing of that nature,” Hull told her. “None of our weapons utilize poison, although of course some of the nuclear materials in the warheads are, technically, quite poisonous. But they're virtually inaccessible even if one had the time, tools, and access to the warheads required. The same would be true of Rigel.”

“Thank you, Captain.” She turned back to Barngate. “Where were you when the emergency occurred, Chief?”

“I was walking through the central corridor, headed toward the bridge,” Barngate answered. “I was slated to go on watch there in about a half-kilosec.”

“What happened, in your words?”

“Well, I was near the ladder when I caught a whiff of something that stung my throat, then burned all the way down. I got one lungful of the stuff—I'll never forget that—then I held my breath and headed for the closest mask locker. I got one on and ran for the bridge. When I got there, the captain, navigator and man on the communication watch—that was Jerry Dakart—they was already down. The captain was on the deck too, he was crawling and trying to get to the general-alarm.”

“Didn't you think to take masks to the bridge?”

“No, ma'am, they have a mask locker there,” Barngate replied. “And also, everything happened so suddenly that I didn't have time to think. At least I wasn't thinking about anyone else, I was just thinking about getting a mask on before it was too late.”

“What did you do next?”

“I ran to the mask locker.”

“The one on the bridge?”

“Yes, but I was too late. By the time I got a mask on the captain, he was gone. So were the others.” He gestured helplessly. “There just wasn't nothing I could do.”

“I see,” York said. “Did you see any other men during that time?”

“Jarrett ran to the bridge about that time.” He nodded toward Shumway. “He was in pretty bad shape. He'd caught a few whiffs before he managed to get a mask on.”

York glanced at Shumway. “How much did you breathe?”

“Two, maybe three breaths,” answered Shumway. His anger was palpable. “I was close to the locker when it happened.”

“Which locker?”

“The one in the central corridor. That's at the foot of the ladder leading to the bridge.”

“The same one Barngate used?”

“Yes, ma'am. I wasn't far behind him.”

“What did you do after you got the mask?”

“I followed the chief to the bridge.”

“But you were too late.”

“They were dead,” said Shumway flatly. “Everyone was dead.”

“Except the chief, of course.”

“He was trying to put a mask on the captain, like he said.”

“Did you see any other men during this time?”

“Nobody,” Shumway declared. “What's the point of all this, ma'am? We wrote it all down already!”

York ignored his protests and returned her attention to Barngate. “What happened next, Chief?”

“I sounded the alarm. I didn't know how bad the extent of it was yet.”

“And then?”

“Then I ordered Jarrett to run down to the ECS room to see what the trouble was,” Barngate answered. “I knew we was in bad shape. The captain and navigator was both dead, and the only thing I could think of was to find a safe landing spot. As nearly as I could figure, the Gelhart system was it.”

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