CHAPTER 10              


With almost the entire crew sitting around the tables for supper, Dee started really feeling at home again. She had even started wondering how it was she had ever even lived without them. They were now more her family than anyone else she had ever known. Even her real family started to seem pale in comparison. That was saying something considering the powerful influence her Uncle Isaac had always been.

Jack was sitting next to her at the table. He was laughing and joking with everyone. He always fit very easily into a crowd, which was the exact opposite of Dee. Jack meant a lot to her. He was the kindest man she had ever known. They had a relationship that was special and different because he was a lot like a good husband, but not a husband. They stayed separate most of the time and it was much to the others advantage that they respected each other's space.

Vitosk was an interesting fellow. Dee kind of thought him as that Uncle that always shows up, after having visited strange places, bringing gifts like authentic native garb from Samoa that was really made in Taiwan. They had had plenty of differences but, his presence was a familiar one that made her comfortable. It was so much so that Dee would feel empty without it.

Pam and Pete were always a pair. Pam was like a sister that Dee had never had. It was so different now from when they first left home. Dee had always thought that Pam was too perky. She was like one of those sorority types from college that Dee never did like. What Dee found was, that her exterior really was her. Dee hid things and hid them very well. Pam was who she was and made no secret of it. She was nice, caring, and a very warm person. Dee felt lucky knowing her.

Pete was like that dopey brother that was always getting in trouble at school. His transformation from Marine, to hippie, back to Marine was enough to keep Dee giggling for hours. When she first met him she hated his guts. She thought he was nothing but a Gestapo shadow government type. Now she knew he wasn't reliable enough to be that. Nobody would have hired a guy to be a spy that was as wishy-washy as he was.

Gina and Saiid were like the couple next door. It pained Dee to see them going through all of what they had to endure. In the weeks following their child's death they had barely spoken to each other. If anyone was suffering from that, it was poor little Hiruko. Dee, like everybody else, steered clear of that entanglement. They were going to have to work things out for themselves and that was all that could be done. Dee knew that any involvement there, by her or anyone else, would only make matters worse. It really hurt Dee to see them like that because she found that she cared about them in every way.

Harry was just that guy that you knew was always going to be there. A wise ass sometimes, a smart ass others, he was the guy you met in bars and was always talking about that book he was going to write, but never would. Yet just like Vitosk, Dee couldn't imagine life without him. She could not bring herself to imagine life without anybody sitting here for that matter. Like so many other ironies of this trip, Dee had to come to another world just to find what she wanted back home. This was something she had never had before in her life. She had people, friends, the closest of confidants that she cared about and wanted to be with.

Dee leaned over and whispered into Jack's ear for a second. He got a strange look on his face as he replied, "We don't have any movies?" Dee slapped him on the arm. It had better be one of these days and it had better be soon!

Dee leaned over and propped herself on the table. She looked down at the sore spot in her little world. There was Gary. He had been a fixture in her life for so many years. There he was being his usual smiling, friendly, two faced self that she had come to know and hate. She couldn't get divorced and get away from him. She couldn't even fly to another star to get away from him. She was suddenly wishing he would disappear again. Then she saw the ring and it was on his finger right where it should be! He had been telling her the truth! That was a first.


The rain had stopped but everything was still soaked. The air was cool and humid. Jack looked behind him as he closed the back door to the Inn. Everybody was still inside having a good time. Jack walked on out to the lab tent thinking about how one of these days he was going to get around to putting up a few more buildings. Then again, he still hadn't got around to fixing the ones he had. Dumbo, like an enthusiastic puppy dog, ran up to Jack. Jack petted the elephant who then wandered back off but, not before giving Jack a friendly nudge that almost knocked the Marine off his feet. “Damn glad he doesn’t think he’s a lap dog.” It scared the hell out of Jack every time Dumbo came charging up for a scratch on the trunk. The sight of several tons of hair running at you was never pleasant.

Closing the flap behind him Jack found Vitosk at the computer. "All right Yurgani. What's with the cloak and dagger? You back on that spy kick again?"

"Sit down Jack," Yurgani pointed to a fold our chair. He called up several different files, "now that we have our main computer back I took the opportunity to do some checking."

"Yes," Jack played along.

"One thing that we were never able to investigate at all due to the destruction of our vessel. Jack do you know what that cylinder was that caused the shockwave that destroyed Hermes."

"I'll never forget Yurgani. How many people died that day?"

Yurgani stopped the flowing charts on the screen for a second, "What always bothered me Jack, was how it got there. A device that was obviously technologically advanced. In a system that up until that point had only been reached by probes from our world."

Jack shook his head, "A probe could have left it behind. Maybe the Japs? Like Pete said."

"Maybe but doubtful. The device obviously had only one purpose. That purpose was most obviously to destroy our ship. Just to leave a mine, even in the orbit of a planet, years in advance, to hit a ship that was not even thought of when the mine was deployed? Unlikely at best and impossible is more realistic."

Jack really wanted to go to bed right now. He was tired. "Get to the point Yurgani."

"Well since we have seen no signs that the Japanese have arrived here, and it is obvious that the people on this planet could not have built or deployed such a device, there is only one ship that could have deployed it."

Jack shrugged, "I give up, who? I mean we were the onl..."

Vitosk pointed to a graph on his screen. He had a small chart under it. "Vibration on our hull at this time. Target detected at this time. We received a transmission from the device here. I remind you it was calling our ship. This is the time of detonation and finally impact with the shock wave. I did some calculations based on our trajectory. Remember, we were braking at the time. If an object was going at the same speed as us, at the time of this vibration, no longer being slowed by our breaking maneuver, and being pulled on by the planet's gravity, it would have reached this point, at this time."

Jack looked at the graphs. An object that would have separated from Hermes would have reached almost the exact location that they first detected the cylinder. Jack was stunned, "It came from our own ship!"

Vitosk nodded. "It was probably bolted to our hull right before we left Earth."

For the first time Jack was scared. The only people who could have done that would have been his own. They would have security clearances and that meant this “they” would have been NASA. They would have been on the project since day one. What Jack didn't understand, and he wanted to clarify this very well, was why? Why would The US government want to destroy their own vessel that cost billions of dollars?

"Because Jack," said Vitosk, "they never wanted us to reach here. They wanted us, particularly you, Dee, and I to build them that ship. Now they have the plans to it and they have the records we have been beaming back since we left. They know its performance capabilities and now they can build their own with no one else’s help. Not just prototypes either. They know what the drive system is capable of now. I remind you of who was sitting in on that government hearing we attended that day. If you recall it was the Russian Ambassador. You of course remember the deals that were made to get me from Russia to the United States."

Again, Jack still wanted to know why. His reasoning was now personal. If Yurgani was right, even close to right, then there was only one person on board that would fit the mold of the saboteur. He was the man who had been in with the security types from day one. It was the very man that had recruited Jack in the first place. The man that was the driving force behind the mission until Jack came along. "Jesus Christ Yurgani we're talking about Pete."
Vitosk's head dropped, "I know."



_____________________




It was one of those formal days. The giant hall on the Southeast Wing of the Palace grounds had to been cleared of all the junk that had been stored there since the last Emperor left office. The Red and White marble floor had been polished off and one of the many thrones owned by the Daltop government was brought in. In this case the particular chair was the throne of the land of Zeat and Western Calden, the Peninsular Lands. No sooner had the food and tables been set out than the twenty two foot double doors opened and the room filled with people.

To say you were going to court at the Imperial Palace was really to say that you were going to the twenty-four hour a day parties. There were many halls in the numerous buildings that crowded the grounds. The court staff opened up new rooms and banquets as the supplies for the previous ones dwindled. There were always multiple banquet halls being opened and closed at all times somewhere on the grounds. This was business as usual but the opening of this room, today, was very different. It had been some time since court had been held here and the buzz amongst the thousand or so guests on the grounds was that you wanted to be here.

When Emperor Halden entered the room he was looking far from his usual self. He seldom attended his own courts. When he did he was normally, jovial, informal, and dressed in leisurewear to minimize his presence. He slipped in and out of the gatherings almost undetected. It was different this time. The Musicians halted their music, there was a moment of silence, and then the powerful Imperial Anthem began to fill the room. Halden stepped in with all of the regalia associated with his position. The massive golden crown sat atop his head, the robes trailed a good ten feet behind him, the highly ornate clothes that were from a much earlier time in history, all made him look less man, and more a living Deity.  

By the time that Halden and his honor guard reached the Imperial Throne the band was playing the Emperor's Theme. The procession was well timed; Halden took his place, before the court, sitting on his throne, just as the last note of his personal music was played. The honor guard fanned out to the left and right. Ten soldiers per side, with polished buttons and dark black shirts, high golden helmets topped with tall decorative slivers of many different furs. The Imperial Advisors and various others, including the former emperor stood just behind the throne.

There were two men on the stage behind the thrown that bothered Joe. The first was the former Emperor. It was far from custom for that man to be standing there. It meant that Halden was serious about what was going on and that he meant business. It said to the crowd gathered in front of him that he was seeking the advice of the former Imperial leader with the most experience in revolution. He was doing so at the risk of losing face with the Imperial Legislature.  

The other man behind the Emperor, that had caught Joe's eye, was a uniformed fellow with a familiar double-breasted black tunic. His pinned up sleeve was most distinctive. This man was close to the throne and yet another subtle message that Halden was sending. Joe realized that these things were no accident but, part of a well-calculated plan. To have the military right there at his beck and call was more than just a symbolic gesture. Joe expected as much but, it was who the man was that bothered him. He was an officer of exceptional character, bravery, and with a good head on his shoulder. He was also Joe's friend and former subordinate.  The soldier was Pascal, now an Imperial General, and by all accounts, commander of the army designated to invade Joe's homeland.

A herald stepped forward, "Who be here that he may petition the most honorable court of his Imperial Majesty, Halden the Twenty-Ninth."

A name was read from a list. Long ago you shouted to be recognized. These days you had to register and be called in turn. Joe and his party were apparently near the bottom of the list despite the fact that it was no secret to anyone that it was his petition that was the cause of this entire affair. It took three hours before Joe stepped up in front of the throne. It was a throne that at one time had belonged to his people. Joe waited to be announced. A Herald took a copy of a letter from Joe and placed it in the hands of Halden.

Clearing his throat, Joe read from his copy, "The Imperial Province of the Peninsular, consisting of both the regions of the Zeat and Calden peoples, in formalities established by the peoples of those lands, have elected to sever all ties with the Dynasty of the Imperial City of Daltop. This will include the confiscation of Imperial Lands and holdings, including the Imperial Rail System, within the boundaries of the Former Province, now to be known forthwith as the Republic of the Peoples of the United Peninsular."

Halden gestured for a man from his row of advisors. The man stepped forward and they whispered to each other for moment. Halden looked back as the advisor stepped back into place. Halden laughed politely, "Well I guess we solved the mystery as to why all my Rail people stopped filing their reports. That is assuming that you are serious General Joe."

The first part was a joke. What Joe was doing here was a simple formality. Everyone knew what was happening long before they came into this room. Reality had long since outrun custom and a long time before Joe's day. Joe replied to the statement, "I am fully aware that you are building an Army in Ninvey and Yisak. I am fully prepared to resist you."

"Ah," said Halden, "So you are going to lead the rebel army. I'm afraid my spies have not been so reliable as of late. Well General Joe, good luck to you. I understand that you are familiar with the man who is commanding Imperial Arms that has been ordered to restore order to your lands."

"That I am," Joe nodded to his old friend.

"Good," said the Emperor.  "If that is all, Petition denied, thank you. good day."


_____________________


The door slammed shut with a clanking metal sound. The door itself was wood but had both a metal lock and a barred window. Shlendon nodded to the guard who pointed him in the right direction. Shlendon gestured to Rizen who followed him deeper into the prison's far chambers. It was an old Imperial building, mostly abandoned now, but sitting on the barracks grounds of Tallos. The entire facility had now become Shlendon's private domain. He had decided to put it back to some use.

The modern world had so long ago abandoned ideas that Shlendon held dear. It was because these fools were pretending that they were civilized. Shlendon understood all too well, he saw it in the last war, that man was nothing more than a simple animal, a beast, playing at being a god, and no matter how hard man were to try he would always be that beast. Shlendon had not rejected his more animal nature. Instead, he embraced it as the way things should be.

This prison was the perfect example. It was full of tools that bore results. They were thought by even the Eastern regions to be too cruel. So they locked this place up. They hoped it would go away. That was the part of men who were lying to themselves. The very fact that they did not actually just knock this place down, burn it, was testimony to who these so called civilized men really were. They were afraid that one day they just might need this place again. That once again they would need to be animals to survive. While it took the god to be noble, it took the beast to live.

The young girl started whimpering again as Shlendon stopped and stood over the table she was lying on. She pulled against the shackles holding down her hands and feet. Shlendon reached inside his belt. He drew out his long cold blade. The girl screamed and began going into fits. Shlendon held out his free hand, palm up. Rizen reached into the bag at his side and handed Shlendon his fruit. It was his favorite lunch.

A guard brought up a chair and Shlendon sat down and began cutting small slices to eat. He chewed on one for a while and with a half full mouth, "Now, what is your name again, uh..."

Rizen answered, "Thimina sir."

"Yes. Thimina, kind of think of me as a kind of Master's favorite brother sort. Now child there are questions I need answered. As from what my Intelligence people tell me, you seem the best one to give me those answers."

Rizen wondered about that. This girl was captured watching children along with some little old ladies. Shlendon had already had the other adults executed which was strange because he had spared the children so far. It made no sense to Rizen. For starters it was not the reputation that Shlendon had. The other reason was a more practical one in that the adult females had value and the children were just more mouths to feed and things to guard. This girl was another such oddity for she could not provide any valuable information. At least the professional intelligence people seemed to think so.

"Now Thimina, I can call you that can't I?" asked Shlendon politely. The girl had remained silent. She had remained silent for the last three days. Every report that had been written on her, had indicated that she had not said the first word since her capture. "I do not want military information. I already have that. I just need some honest opinions. Are you a good judge of character?"

The young girl just fixed her eyes on a point in the ceiling. Shlendon leaned over her. He looked up, "Yes it is a ceiling up there. Now shall you tell me what kind of person is this Mary?"  

The girl said nothing. Shlendon sat back down and nodded to the guards. The two men stepped up and grabbed the wheels on each end of the table. They began turning them and the chains began pulling apart. Thimina began breathing heavily until finally she broke out into screams and cries.

Rizen tapped his boss on the shoulder. They stepped into a corner of the room, away from the immediate screaming so as to be heard. Rizen asked, "General, I do not understand what it is you want to know here?"

Shlendon shrugged as he ate on his fruit, "I want to know exactly who this Mary is. What are her likes, her dislikes, does she like bright colors? Are her musical tastes formal or folk? What kind of people does she like to associate with?"

"Why?"  Rizen looked over to the rack currently in use. It made him sick at is stomach.

Shlendon shrugged, "Curiosity I guess Rizen. I like to know all I can."

The girl had broken down into complete hysterics now. Rizen felt a shiver. He decided to change the subject.  "Uh... Comptal's brigade is forming. They should be ready to move south by the morning. Are you sure you wish to send a single brigade down to the border without support? They will be heavily outnumbered."

Shlendon smiled, "Comptal can handle it. He thinks he can anyway. He is a fool and therefore his loss will be no great one should that occur. If you will excuse me Rizen, I think young Thimina is ready for some more questions. Life seems to have pulled her in a different direction."  Shlendon chuckled and went back to his chair.


_____________________


The color was brown. Not only were the jackets not as good looking as the Imperial Black, but they were also not as comfortable, or well made. The substance felt like burlap, coarse, itchy, and too hot in the afternoon even on this world. It was not comfortable to work in and currently there was a lot of physical labor to go around. This place was simply called Fort Point. There was little more here than a field along the rail lines when Joey first arrived. Now with constant digging, in the rocky soil, something that looked like a series of high bluffs now covered the tracks on both sides. There was a village of temporary huts and tents all behind these man made bluffs. Large cannon, fresh volunteers of troops, horses, elephants, and supplies were already arriving by train from all over the new nation. Fort Point was growing into the likes of a city.

Joey still thought all of this was exciting. Within days of arriving he was assigned to a company of roughly one hundred soldiers. Joey was made second in command. It was both a shock and thrill to him. His Commander, a former Imperial Inspector named ZeLunz, expressed every confidence in Joey. This was in no small part due to the fact that he left the running of the entire unit to Joey, almost, exclusively. ZeLunz was seldom seen around his own command. Joey quickly found out the man was spending all of his time at higher headquarters trying to turn his nose the same color as the new jackets.

This left the training, the managing of supplies, the daily schedule, the endless paperwork, personnel problems, complaint taking, finding food, and every other little thing in a list of a thousand, all up to Joey. It seemed like a hassle at first but Joey took to it very quickly. Just like when he was learning the ins and outs of flying a space shuttle it was exactly what Pete and Bill Morton had drilled into his head years ago. Being a natural at something and having the discipline to carry on with the mundane but, necessary, were two different skills. In that particular arena it was the latter being the more important of the two.

The arrival of a new train always brought more work with it as if that four lettered word was a cargo in it‘s own right. Joey pulled his overcoat snug as he left his small lean-to. It was an Imperial Coat and since everyone who could get their hands on one was wearing them, so did Joey. The air up here was very humid and very cold. There was always a bank of fog somewhere to be seen. Sometimes a large cloud would come rolling through the entire valley. It was breathtaking to watch but, once it arrived, it made life miserable.

Sergeant ZeTulla saw his executive officer walking towards the railroad. He joined him quickly. ZeTulla was not that much older than Joey himself. He had only limited military experience which, was why they gave him the rank. Limited experience was more than most of these people had here so any experience at all was going at a premium. Joey was wishing that they had not been so generous with the rank giving, however. ZeTulla was not a bad guy but, he talked too much. He was also good at making people mad at him and without even realizing what he had just done it.

"You think the tents are here finally? I don't know about you Joey but I'm tired of waking up wet in the morning. I hear we getting some better food too. I don't know about you but I'm tired of that slop they call stew."

Joey ignored him all the way to the row of tents set up by the rail lines. There was a long line of soldiers disembarking from car after car. "Newbies!"

"Hell yeah," said ZeTulla.  

Joey looked at him, "You are not going to be riding these people. Do you understand that Sergeant."

"Yes sir, but ain't that what I'm supposed to do. I mean you told me to get work out of them."

"Get work, yes," replied Joey, "Get your ass beat by one that's the size of a mountain, no."

ZeTulla dropped his head and mumbled, "It was his fault."

Joey managed to find the papers waiting for him from the mass of personnel officers who were set up in the tents around the train. He walked over to the mob of new people that were now as much his as the paperwork that came with them, "All of you with two marks on your paper," Joey held his fingers up, "This many, follow me please."

They rambled out of the tents like a mob. Joey turned on them quickly. "What is this! Form two lines now!"  

Most in the group looked as if they were not used to being yelled at. They were shocked but complied. It felt unnatural to Joey as well. Some of those men looked to be old enough to be his grandfather. "I know that you all have been given at least some basic military instruction. Believe me, in a few days all thirty of you will get far more than you ever imagined. You are not a mob. This is an Army! You will start to look like one now."

There was a giggle from the quickly forming ranks. Joey spotted it coming from a young boy under a big cap in the rear. The boy was doing his best to keep a silly grin off his face. Joey walked up to the new recruit, "Something funny!"

There was a mumble, "No."

Joey gave up. He would deal with this one later. He led them back to the grounds that his unit drilled on. Then the various military traditions of filling out papers began. It was a task that was complicated by the fact that these people were largely illiterate. He could not just hand them the forms so they could individually fill them out. Joey had to do almost everyone himself.

He never understood this either.  Joey had been literate in English since he could remember. Now he spoke and wrote in five different languages with various degrees of fluency. Vitosk had taught him a good deal of Russian years ago. Harry had taught him Latin. Now he added the two Native languages of Zeat and Dott to his list. How did these people not even know what they spoke day in and out?

"All right, show of hands here people," said Joey. "Who can write letters?"

Out of the thirty he got four hands. Two of them looked like they were some kind of merchant types. They wore even the shabby looking clothing, that the army gave them, very neatly and had a good deal more luggage than was common. The next was an old man at the end of the line and then there was the heckler that Joey had vowed to put on latrine duty for the duration of the war. Well that plan went to hell because he needed this young boy now.

Joey called them out. The first two were exactly what Joey expected. He sent the two merchants off with the first rank of soldiers. He turned to his next two literates. The old man first, "Your name?"

"Lee Talay."

Joey was confused, "You said you’re Zeat?"

The old man answered, "I changed my name. I used to live on the South Coast out in the Eastern Zone."

"I've been there before. Pretty country but I guess not anymore."  Joey pointed to the kid, "Your name?"

"ZeKe," the boy almost laughed saying it.  

"Lee, go with the rest of them. ZeKe will be with you shortly. You boy, come with me."

Joey found the first vacant tent and closed the flap behind him. He was still looking mostly at the wide brim of the cap. He reached up and flipped it off the soldier’s head, "What are you doing here?"

Finny started laughing now. Her long dark hair was now a short greasy mop. "You didn't think I was going sit at home did you?"

"You're going back Finny. That's final. Even if I did want you to stay up here and I don't. Your Dad would kill me if he found out."

Finny slipped her hands around his neck, "Oh Joey he's probably going to kill you anyway. I mean if he finds out what we did that night. He'll make standing in front of a cannon look safe."

"What!" Joey's eyes opened wide. He caught himself yelling and lowered his voice, "you said that you were going to handle him. You said he'd let me buy you if you asked."

"Well I didn't think he'd say no. He thinks you’re a boy. Maybe with everything going on now he'll change his mind." Finny kissed him and then said with a twinkle in her eye "oh Joey, don't worry. It'll all work out."

Finny was confident in herself. In her lifetime, and considering that was far less than some others, she had wrapped every man she had ever known around her fingers. It started with her father. She had quickly discovered his weakness for her tears and sad face. Then after Finny discovered what men really wanted out women she found it even that much easier. It had made her a good spy. Now, after all this time, she was still using the same old tricks but, for different reasons. Now Finny was doing this for herself. It made it actually feel right. There would be no tears when it was over this time.


_____________________


The lab tent was full when Vitosk stepped in. With the data from the ship's main computer, suddenly Saiid’s gene sequencer was working. With guidance from Pam and Harry they were well into unraveling the mysteries of the cave wall. Suddenly, when his years of work and translation looked to be paying off, Vitosk found he had other concerns. Equally so, the others who had thought Vitosk was wasting his time were now glued to the progress that the computer was making.

"Jack," called out Vitosk quietly. Jack rose from his seat and left the tent quietly. The others were too busy listening to Pam explain the dynamics of what she had just found. The two men walked a respectable distance from the tent. "I'm at a standstill here."

Jack was agitated, "I need something here Yurgani. I can't go around accusing people with the half-baked theory we came up with. I need some more hard facts."

"Well the personnel records are useless. Pete compiled them, as you know. I've taken a different tack with what he have however. We know it came from our hull. We don't know the module it was on though. I think we can localize the vibration or find out where it was interfacing with our computer from. I'll need some help with this I‘m afraid. Dee or maybe Saiid."

"Interfacing with our computer?"

"It would have had to," explained Yurgani. "It was obviously programmed to detach once we began our braking maneuver. It would have had to make its own navigational calculations. Since we already had a computer that could do that it must have been using it."

It made sense. It also gave them quite a bit to go on. Jack thought it over for a second. He was going to have to trust someone else. Since it was only natural for him to not wish thinking of the woman he was sharing a bed with as a killer, Jack picked her. Jack motioned for Vitosk to follow and they went back to his cottage.  

Dee was there, sitting at her table, interfacing with the satellite. She smiled when they walked in and then got back to work. Vitosk looked over her shoulder for a second. Then he looked at the busy printer on the floor. Yurgani reached down and picked up one of the printouts. It was a very magnified picture of the surface of the planet.  It was so enlarged that man-made structures, even men, were clearly visible. The picture in Vitosk's hand, and the ones in the printer bin, all showed rows of uniformed tents, rail stations, and large groups of horses.

Vitosk pointed at Jack with the picture in hand, "I did not think you would go so far."

Jack snatched the picture away, "Don't start Yurgani. Joe's been good to us. We owe him something as simple as this."

"Yes I will agree we owe the man much. So give him indoor plumbing, not military information that can shape the course of these people's civilization."

Dee dropped her glasses to the end of her nose as she looked at Yurgani over her shoulder, "Yurgani, just in case you haven't thought about it. If these people lose up there then we're in the firing line here. Not to mention Joey. The people in those sat photos are going to be coming to kill him. I for one hope Old Joe knows all he can."

Vitosk dropped his head. He was not going to argue his point any longer since, now it was clear, that after years of trying, these Americans simply would not listen.  Every time he thought they had learned their lesson they went right back to their old ways. Vitosk reflected on how easily the human mind forgets, and in particular the American variety of the species. It selects only the good things and misplaces the bad ones leaving even intelligent and educated people, like these that Yurgani were with, to make the same mistakes over and over again.  

Jack pulled up a chair behind Dee, "Darlin‘, you think you can check something out for us. We were trying to narrow something down with the ship. Vitosk here was just going over our flight characteristics. I… uh ordered him to… um, uh, do a study you know."

Dee's eyes went from Jack’s face, to Vitosk’s, and then back again. She took her glasses off, "Cut the shit Jack. What are you two up to?"

After a moment of hesitation Jack explained. Dee's face grew pale, "Our own ship!"

Vitosk nodded, "The evidence seems very clear."

After taking a deep breath Dee shook her head, "I don't know guys. Pete? I mean you know at one time I might have said hell yeah. It's just..."

Jack nodded in agreement, "You know him now. Dee, me and Pete go back a long way. I trained him when he first came to NASA. He was a good instinctive pilot and had a good war record. The one thing he was not was an engineer. I got real curious as to how he got through that part of the program. His test scores were miserable, at best, but they put him ahead of a lot of other people. I did some checking and hit a lot of roadblocks. Pete's got friends in high places Dee."

"That doesn't mean anything!" protested Dee. She could not accept that. "I mean, why would they send him? Why would he go if he knew they were going to blow up the ship? For that matter why didn't they do just that? Why didn't the thing just blow up on the hull?"

"Because," said Vitosk, "They wanted our log, which was being beamed back, to record that something was indeed in our path. They could not make the mission's failure seem their own. If any wreckage were ever found they wanted it to look like another party did it. May I remind you that the Japanese vessel, on its way here, uses almost and identical device to propel it. Only a smaller charge."

"They're trying to start a war?" Dee was appalled. She didn't want to believe this.  "Why?"

"When I left NASA the first time," said Jack. "You already knew part of the reason was Rockmont and his bullshit. He was doing anything he could to save the agency from being under funded right out of existence. He was trying to sell us out to anybody with the biggest budget that could use our services. I disagreed with him on that. I went public and got canned for it. Created a big enough fuss though. The legacy of which was that the agency didn't do anything for years but get rocked in scandal."

"Who was he trying to sell out too?" asked Dee.

"Who do you think? Who had the biggest budget around, the military. That's why I was so hesitant to take this job. I was afraid of something just like this. Instead a peaceful expedition for scientific research..."

Vitosk finished Jacks statement, "They're probably building, if they have not already completed it, a war fleet. They want an excuse to grab all three worlds in this system as their own. Get around the Melbourne Accords in the name of National Security. Claim all three planets outright."

Jack finished, "and put Rockmont's name in the history books and make him the head of the most powerful and important agency in the world."                

That was all a million miles away right now. Dee got back to her little corner of reality, "That still doesn't explain why you suspect Pete. I mean if he stepped on board then he knew he was going to die. He might be a lot of things but he's not suicidal."

"In that you are correct," remarked Vitosk. "They might not have told him exactly what the device was going to do. They might have had an escape plan for him. He was the commander of our landing team as you recall."

"All they had to do," said Jack, "was tell him that it would go off at this time and then set the thing to go off early. All he had to do was make sure we didn't find it before we reached the system. Then he could detach a shuttle, land, and sit and wait, sending back reports like you've been doing. He probably figured on taking Joey and Julia with him, to keep him company. That's why he probably went out of his way to bring them along in the first place."

Vitosk nodded, "A nice neat little plan."

Dee's heart shrunk. She grabbed at one last straw, "Why did he kill Larry?"

"We never went EVA before that," said Jack. "Maybe Larry would have seen the bomb?"

There was almost a tear in her eye. An idea came to mind. Dee turned around and began giving her transmitter a command list of files to search for. She hit the transmit button and waited. Her two companions both asked at the same time, "What are you looking for?"

Dee just continued gazing at the screen.  "Even if that thing wasn't in our inventory it had to have been brought up sometime."

"Surely they wouldn't log it," commented Vitosk.

"No," said Jack. He got the idea, "but the shuttles were packed and arranged according to weight and bulk. If one had an unusual flight plan and had an empty spot that was say, oh, about three meters in circumference and about seven meters long..."

"I got it," said Dee. She had listed a search by almost the exact parameters that Jack had just spelled out. "Oh Jesus, flight two twelve. Look at that. It's missing about twelve tons of cargo,“ she pointed at the screen, “and what does that mean Jack?"

"It's the telemetry. It was in a parallel orbit with the centerline fuselage at a range of...  shit, twenty-two meters. I never knew about that. It should have been packed with cargo too, that was one of the early supply runs."

"How many EVA's were after that?" asked Vitosk.

Dee thought as she looked at the dates. "I don't have to look that up. Three, all to bolt on the drive train."

Jack pointed out, "But those were all port side and this mission was on the starboard. Dee who was the commander and crew on that flight?"

Dee scrolled down the file. The names were all military, and only one name on the list actually left with the mission. Dee's voice was cold as she read off the name, "Lieutenant Colonel Peter S Winston. Oh shit."