Episode 54

Their Expired Mistress

As Barngate spoke, York covertly studied his companions. Lee Chun was slender and poised despite his soiled clothes and grimy hands. His expression gave nothing away. Around forty, he reminded her of Char Wong. In contrast, Jarrett Shumway was a burly man, with a heavy, sullen face and dark eyes that kept straying towards her suited form. In fairness, she reminded herself, it had probably been months since he'd last seen a woman. He plainly was more than willing to let Barngate do the talking.

Hull glanced at Wexby. “Lieutenant, please escort these men to the launcher. Take Osborn with you.

“Aye aye, sir.” As Wexby sprang to obey, Hull gave Barngate a piercing lookover as the petty officer walked past him. York glanced at the quartermaster chief and his two companions as they dutifully trudged after the Draco's lieutenant. They looked as if they had come straight from the fires of hell, she thought. Lines of strain and fatigue marked their faces. Whatever their roles had been, their lot hadn't been easy. And strangely enough, none of the three men struck her as being Dai Zhani operatives, not even Lee Chun.

Of course, the better the agent, the better he was able to conceal himself in plain sight. Or herself.

“Captain, you know where the others are located?”

The Marine officer nodded. “We'll go find them and bring them back to the launcher, Captain. You should have a clear path to the designated hatch; my men are already there. I assume you don't want an escort.”

“It appears we'll be fine.

Hull paused several times, closely scrutinizing the air ducts in particular as they walked through the corriders and ascended to the top level. There were still no signs of a struggle, or any conflict at all.

Benbow, who had been studying a meter on his device, said, “No sign of any radiation leaks.”

“What about anomalies in the atmosphere?” asked York.

“It's been thoroughly scrubbed, Miss York. The ECS for a ship this size will recycle its entire atmosphere in about four kiloseconds. A single scrub wouldn't remove it all from the air, but it's been weeks. There have been hundreds of cycles, which, of course, is why it's perfectly safe for us to breathe it now.”

“Won't the air quality records be logged?”

“Certainly. And even if the computer records were scrubbed as well, there is the physical evidence that would be detectable in the filters.”

York grimaced and shook her head. “Do you really think anyone capable of planning and successfully executing a mission this lethal would fail to replace the filters? They're almost certainly floating out in space with the corpses.”

“Mm, yes, I suppose that's true,” Benbow admitted ruefully.

Hull led them around a corner, then halted as a pair of plasma burners were leveled at them from the end of the passage. The two Marines looked more than intimidating in their powered battle armor, more like a pair of oversized and heavily armed robots than mere technologically enhanced men.

“Identify yourselves!” one of their voices projected over his helmet speaker.

Hull simply held up his hand and waited as a blue light briefly streamed out from above the Marine's visor to scan it. The captain waited for a moment, then nodded as the two Marines put up their weapons and saluted him with the crash of metal on metal.

“As you were, Marines.” Hull held up his hand to the door switch and the iris valve popped open in immediate response. “Doc, I think you'd best wait here. Miss York, with me, if you please.”

The doctor nodded obediently. She followed Hull through the valve, then jumped, startled, as it slammed shut behind her. “We'll make our way up to the bridge first, I think. Then the compartment in question.”

Hull walked with a light, quick step, picking his way unerringly through the corridors to the central passageway, where he waited for York to catch up.

“You're too fast for me,” she said when she reached his side.

“I've lived in such ships for thirty years,” Hull explained. He flicked his light along the passageway to illuminate the empty walls. “This is a hellish thing, York. A ship was not meant to die like this.”

“Murdered,” she corrected.

“Murdered,” he agreed. “I couldn't even begin to conceive of such a thing when you first came on board the ship. Even now, that I see it, I still can't believe it to be real.”

She nodded. It was one thing to see it through the eyes of logic. It was altogether something else to stand in the empty metal sarcophagus where so many men had died.

Hull came to a ladder and moved up agilely. “This will take us to the bridge,” he called back to her. When York reached the top, he was still there, waiting for her. “The number two lander was launched,” he said noncommittally. He flicked the beam into the empty lander bubble.

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