Redshirts

“I’ll say,” Abernathy said.

“Captain, before Crewman Finn briefs us on Weston, I want to discuss the layout of the Nantes with you,” Q’eeng said. He and Abernathy fell into a discussion.

Dahl turned to Finn. “You okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” Finn said.

“You’re sure,” Dahl said.

“Andy, quit it,” Finn said. “It’s a coincidence, is all it is. I’m going to get through this. You are going to get through this. We’re going to get back to the Intrepid, we’re going to get a drink, and then I’m going to go to Medical when Maia wakes up and kicks my ass. That’s my prediction. I’ll put money on it if you want.”

Dahl smiled. “Okay,” he said, and sat back. He looked over at Abernathy and Q’eeng, still in their conversation. Then he looked over to the other ensign. He was looking at Finn with an expression that Dahl couldn’t quite read.

After a moment, it came to him. The other ensign looked relieved.

And he looked guilty about it.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The Nantes bay was empty except for several automated cargo carts rolling about. “Finn and Dahl, you’re with me,” Captain Abernathy said, and then pointed at the remaining ensign. “Grover, you’re with Kerensky and Q’eeng.”

“Yes, sir,” Ensign Grover said, and then was flung backward against the shuttle as a pulse beam hit him, fired from one of the automated carts. As he fell, Dahl caught a glimpse of confusion in his eyes.

And then Dahl was running, with Finn and Kerensky, looking for cover under fire. They found it several meters away, behind storage bins. Several armed cargo carts were now rolling toward them, with the others heading toward where Kerensky and Q’eeng had taken cover.

“Anyone have any ideas?” Abernathy asked.

“Those carts are being controlled from a distance,” Finn said. “If we can get to the quartermaster’s office here in the bay, we can override their signal for the ones in here.”

“Yes,” Abernathy said, and pointed to a far wall. “If this bay is laid out anything like the Intrepid’s, it’s over there.”

“I can do it,” Finn said.

Abernathy held up his hand. “No,” he said. “We’ve already lost one crew member today. I don’t want to risk another.”

As opposed to risking our captain? Dahl thought, but kept silent.

Abernathy raised his pulse gun. “You two cover me as I run for it. I’m going on three.” He started counting. Dahl glanced over to Finn, who shrugged and then readied his pulse gun.

At the three count, Abernathy burst from behind the storage bins like a startled quail and ran in a broken, diving pattern across the bay. The cargo carts abandoned their previous targets and fired at the captain, narrowly missing him each time. Dahl and Finn aimed and knocked out one cart each.

Abernathy made it to the quartermaster’s office, blasting the window and jumping through rather than wasting time opening the door. Several seconds later, the cargo carts noisily deactivated.

“All clear,” Abernathy said, coming into view and hoisting himself over the remains of the window. The members of the Intrepid crew reassembled by the fallen corpse of Grover, whose face still had a look of disbelief on it.

“Finn, it looks like your friend Jer Weston is now a murderer,” Abernathy said, grimly.

“He’s not my friend, sir,” Finn said.

“But you do know him,” Abernathy said. “If you find him, will you be ready to take him down? Alive?”

“Yes, sir,” Finn said.

“Good,” Abernathy said.

“Captain, we need to move,” Q’eeng said. “There may be others of these carts. In fact, I’m willing to bet that Weston is using the carts as his own robot army to keep the crew members bottled up.”

“Yes, precisely,” Abernathy said, and nodded at Q’eeng. “You and I will make our way to the bridge to see if we can find Captain Bullington, and then assist her in taking back the ship. Kerensky, you take Finn and Dahl here and find Weston. Capture him alive.”

“Yes, sir,” Kerensky said.

“Good,” Abernathy said. “Then let’s move.” He and Q’eeng jogged off toward the bay entrance, to wander the crew corridors, where they would no doubt encounter and fight more armed cargo carts.

Finn turned to Kerensky. “So, what’s the plan?” he asked.

“Plan?” Kerensky said, and blinked.

“If there really is a Narrative, it’s not on him right now,” Dahl said, about Kerensky.

“Right,” Finn said, and turned to Dahl. “How about you?”

“You know what I think,” Dahl said, and motioned to the cargo carts.

“You think Jer’s pulling a Jenkins,” Finn said. “Hiding in the walls.”

“Bingo,” Dahl said.

“A what?” Kerensky said. “What are you two talking about?”

Dahl and Finn didn’t answer but instead went about separate tasks—Dahl accessing the ship records while Finn salvaged from the dead cargo carts.

“There,” Finn said, holding out his hand after he was done. “Three cart IDs. We’re going to have to leave our phones behind so we’re not ID’d when we go into the cargo tunnels, and so the armed carts think we’re one of them and don’t try to kill us.”

“Jenkins knew about this trick,” Dahl said.

“Yeah, but I took the IDs from deactivated carts,” Finn said. “These carts are just recently killed. Their IDs are still in the system. I don’t think Jer had time to figure this one out.”

“Figure what out?” Kerensky asked.

“I think you’re right,” Dahl said, and pulled up on his phone a map of the cargo tunnels. “It doesn’t look like he’s had time to make his hidey-hole disappear from the ship records either, since all of the cart distribution nodes are still on the map.”

“So that’s seven nodes,” Finn said. “Which one do you want to try first?”

Dahl pulled up Weston’s information. “His station was here in the bay complex, so I’d say we try the node closest to it,” he said, and then returned to the map and highlighted a node. “Let’s start here.”

“Looks good,” Finn said.

“I order you to tell me what you’re planning,” Kerensky said, plaintively.

“We’re about to help you capture Jer Weston,” Finn said. “That’ll probably get you promoted.”

“Oh,” Kerensky said, and stood up a bit straighter. “We should definitely do that, then.”

“And avenge the death of Grover here,” Dahl added, nodding to Grover’s still surprised body.

“Yes, that too,” Kerensky said, and looked down at the body. “Poor man. This was his last away mission.”

“Well, yes,” Finn said.

“No, I mean that his term of duty was over in just a couple of days,” Kerensky said. “I assigned him to this mission specifically so he could have one more away experience. A last hurrah. He tried to beg off of it, but I insisted.”

“That was deeply malicious of you,” Dahl said.

Kerensky nodded, either not knowing what malicious meant or simply not hearing it, apparently lost in reverie. “A shame, really. He was going to be married, too.”

“Oh, please, stop,” Finn said. “Otherwise I’m going to have to frag you.”