Purge of Prometheus

had my Communications Officer thrown in the brig?”

“Ma’am,” Yen began. “After you conducted the inventory of my quarters, you ordered me to search my own areas followed by those once held by Eminent Merric. One of those areas included the bridge. I searched the physical locations thoroughly, but found no evidence of wrongdoing in any area checked.”

Yen leaned on the Captain’s console, which had already been programmed to display the evidence Yen had found. “Though you hadn’t specified, I took the liberty of assuming that searching the areas once covered by Merric included the computer network maintained on this ship.”

“And you found something condemning Vangore there?” Horace asked, his voice rumbling in the silent room.

“Not at first, no,” Yen said. “At first, I found the same information that you had found previously. Merric had not used his access code after leaving the bridge the night previous. However, that explanation didn’t settle well with me. If he didn’t use his access code at all, that means he was murdered within either the halls or a common area, none of which are ever empty enough to pull off a horrific crime. I figured that a lack of access code was fairly damning evidence that someone had tampered with the system. Therefore, I spent some time digging through the lines of code within the computer. That’s when I found this.”

Yen turned the Captain’s console so that the others could see. Merric’s name was lit in red, underneath which was his access code and a single location listed: Vangore’s personal quarters. “Merric did use his code the night he died,” Yen explained. “He used his code to enter Vangore’s quarters. This evidence was fairly well hidden within the ship’s files, as though someone had tried to erase the evidence. However, I believe that the quick revelation that Merric was missing left Vangore little time to do an efficient job of hiding his crime.”

“Then how did you know to send Horace and his men to the engine room?” the Captain asked.

Yen nodded, knowingly. “After I suspected Vangore, who could have easily altered the computer program from his console on the bridge, I followed his access code following Merric’s visit. The only place Vangore’s code was used was in the engine room to disable the fail safes protecting the engine exhausted port and again when he reentered his quarters about fifteen minutes later. Did you find something in the engine room?”

“Organic residue, unlike any plasma byproducts created by the engine,” Horace answered.

“And you believe…” Yen asked, leaving the question hanging.

“It could potentially be organic remains from a body destroyed in the engine exhaust,” Horace finished. “The medical bay is conducting an analysis as we speak.”

Captain Hodge pushed the console out of her way before collapsing into the helm, her wings folded tightly against her body. She raised her hand and ran it absently through her hair, lost in thought.

“Vangore killed Merric?” a disembodied voice asked from the other side of the room from where the three stood. All turned to see Tylgar still standing awe-struck behind the navigator console.

“Sit down and monitor navigations,” Captain Hodge yelled at the Lithid, who immediately disappeared behind his console and busied himself with unimportant work. “I don’t need to remind you that should word of this spread before I make an official announcement to the crew, you’ll be sharing a cell with him. Am I understood, Magistrate?”

“Ma’am, yes ma’am,” Tylgar replied hastily without turning away from his console.

Captain Hodge turned her attention back to Yen. “I just don’t understand why he would do this. It just doesn’t make any sense. Everyone has had their disagreements on board, but no one under my command would resort to murder.”

Yen shrugged. “I can’t hope to speak on Vangore’s behalf, ma’am,” he replied. “Only one man knows why he committed murder, and he is currently being escorted to the brig. However, ma’am, with your leave I would like to accompany Prestige Horace to the brig and be present for the interrogation.”

Captain Hodge looked up, perplexed. “Why?” she asked. “Why would you want or need to be present for his interrogation?”

Yen leaned forward until he was mere inches away from the Captain. “Ma’am, believe me when I tell you that I have no morbid fascination in watching someone be… encouraged to tell their secrets. However, we need to face a horrible truth. Eminent Merric is dead, which leaves me as both the Squadron Commander and your Tactical Officer, making me the second in command of the Revolution. Whether we like it or not, it is now both my duty and responsibility to ensure discipline is maintained on board. If we can find out what happened to make Vangore cross the line and commit murder, hopefully we can ensure it never happens again.”

Looking tired, the Captain nodded in agreement. “Fine, go with Horace and be present for the interrogation.” She turned toward the Oterian. “Use any means necessary to get answers. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal,” Horace rumbled through clenched teeth. As he turned to leave, Yen fell into step behind him. Neither spoke as the entered the lift, waiting instead for the doors to slide shut behind them.

“That was fairly impressive detective work,” Horace growled condescendingly. “It’s surprising for someone with no forensic background.”

Yen didn’t bother turning toward the Security Officer, instead maintaining his focus on the floor numbers rolling by as the lift descended. “I don’t know what to tell you, Horace. I guess I got lucky by following my hunch.”

“Detectives only use hunches in old vids and story reels,” Horace snorted. “Anyone now and days that tells you they just followed a hunch is covering their own shoddy evidence collection. You wouldn’t be trying to hide something, would you Squadron Commander?”

“Maybe you wouldn’t be so upset if you didn’t have someone else doing your job better,” Yen snarled, the anger flashing through his body. As he turned toward the Oterian, the lift doors opened and Horace stepped off the lift. Yen let the anger subside as he followed.

“No offense, Commander, but I don’t believe you.”

“Then let’s just see what the prisoner has to say under interrogation,” Yen replied. “I can guarantee he’ll tell a pretty interesting story when questioned.”

CHAPTER 19:

Her hopes had been simple: after passing through the small sewer tunnel once and pulling free most of the grime from the pipe walls, let there be nothing left for her second pass. She learned long ago that her hopes very rarely ever came to fruition. Wading through the frigid pool of water, she frowned at the disgusting smell that permeated her body and the filth that, quite literally, fell from her hair and skin. Either she hadn’t knocked free nearly as much from the walls of the tunnel as she would have liked, or the Terrans had devilishly snuck in after she escaped the city and reapplied the fermented bodily wastes. Based on her sour mood, Keryn was prone to believe the latter. Exiting the pool and making her way down the straight tunnel, it wasn’t long until she located the ladder that would return her to the surface, and back into harm’s way.

Keryn slipped out from the sewer entrance and back under the cover of the stone slab, scanning the rubble field with her stolen Terran rifle. She was far from excited about being back in Miller’s Glen, and was even unhappier about the idea of telling the others of the fate of the Cair Ilmun and the rest of the crew. They had put a lot of faith in her plan of escape, even if it had taken a while to convince them of its merits. Unfortunately, no one had believed in her plan more than she had. It had been a severe emotional blow to find the wreckage, a pain that was only slightly alleviated by killing Cardax for the second time. Now there was no avoiding the simple fact that they would have to find another way out of the city. However, she was getting ahead of herself. Until she made it back across the clearing in one piece and back into the relative safety of the still-standing sections of town, her worries were moot.

Taking a deep breath, Keryn bolted from the safety of the sewer entrance and sprinted across the open ground, sliding for cover behind a crumbling wall. She waited, her breath labored as nervous energy flooded her body, but she saw no scanning lasers and heard no gunfire. Perplexed, she peeked over the wall. The watchtowers were quiet, their spotlights rolling lazily across the ruins. No Terrans sounded the alarm and no turrets tracked her position. After a while with no threat appearing, she stood and started a slower, if not nervous, march across the rubble field. Much to her surprise, nothing happened.