Excelsior (12 page)

Williams looked stricken, and his entire body was trembling. “If you disconnect that, it’ll kill us all. I’m going to hold you to your word, Captain. No court-martial. No summary execution.”

Alexander returned the detonator to the crate and rose to his feet. “I’m a man of my word, Lieutenant, but there will still be consequences.”

“I understand.”

“Stone, arrest Lieutenant Williams and take him to the brig. Commander Korbin please accompany them and speak with the prisoner. See if you can establish a motive for this insanity.”

“What about the motive for your insanity, Captain?”

Alexander turned to see Max Carter staring at him, the diplomat’s normally equanimous face had flushed red with fury.

“You may have promised amnesty to this criminal—however illegal that might be—but no one’s promised you anything yet. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t have you arrested and court-martialed.”

Alexander smiled. “All right.” He dropped to his haunches beside the crate once more and lifted the detonator.

“Captain!” Williams screamed.

“Stop him!” Max roared.

No one was fast enough. Alexander ripped the comm band free, and held it out to the crew. “Boom,” he said.

 

Chapter 8

“Boom?” Lieutenant Williams echoed, incredulous.

Alexander nodded. “You thought it was real. That’s why you confessed. Only the one who planted this bomb knew for sure that it was rigged to blow with tampering, so threatening to disarm it was a good way to get you to confess. Assuming that your real goal wasn’t actually to kill everyone on this ship, that is.”

Williams shook his head. “I don’t understand. It should have blown.”

“Disappointed?”

“No, sir!”

“You took a big risk disarming that bomb here with all of us in the blast radius, Captain!” Max Carter said. “Now you’re the one who’s facing a court-martial. Arrest him!” Max snapped his fingers at the nearest MA, Petty Officer Ramos, but Ramos made no move to obey the order.

“I’m afraid he’s right, Captain,” Commander Korbin said.

Alexander frowned. “You don’t really think I’d subject my entire crew to that kind of risk, do you? We jettisoned the real bomb out the airlock before any of you arrived.” Alexander turned to regard the ambassador once more. “This one is just a fake that we put together to make you wet your pants, Max.”

Alexander didn’t think the ambassador’s face could get any redder, but he turned a nice shade of lobster with that retort. If looks could kill…

“You tricked me,” Williams said.

“You sabotaged my ship,” Alexander replied, aiming a finger at the man’s chest. “We’re not even close to even yet. Why’d you do it?” Williams’ lower lip trembled, but he said nothing. “Never mind. Tell it to Korbin. Get him out of here, Stone.”

“Yes, sir.”

“The rest of you, back to your stations.”

A collective sigh rose from the cargo bay as people began filing for the exits. Alexander lingered, frowning as he watched Williams being escorted away with his hands cuffed behind his back.

Commander Korbin came to stand beside him and blew out a breath. “Williams a saboteur,” she said, shaking her head. “I didn’t see that coming.”

“Neither did I.”

“He’s a romantic at heart. Usually romantics are peaceful souls.”

“Or tortured ones,” Alexander suggested.

“He has a wife and daughter back on Earth. Why would he risk a court martial?”

“Maybe he thinks they’re dead, or he’s just desperate to turn the ship around and find out what happened to them. Go talk to him. See if you can get a full confession. When you’re done I want you to schedule one-on-one’s with all the rest of the crew. We need to make sure we don’t have any more saboteurs on board.”

“What are the odds of that?” Korbin asked, frowning.

Alexander turned to her. “You wanted to turn around and go home before we even entered the Looking Glass, even though that would have meant disobeying a direct order.”

“Are you accusing me of something, sir?”

“No, but if even you wanted to turn the ship around, and Williams was willing to resort to sabotage, chances are there are plenty of others who aren’t happy about leaving Earth behind. Besides, we still have one act of sabotage that’s unaccounted for.”

“And that is?”

“That line of bad engine code that almost stopped us cold before we even left Earth’s orbit.”

Korbin’s brow furrowed. “I really doubt we have two saboteurs on board. It must have been Williams. Either that or it was an honest mistake between McAdams and her engineers.”

Alexander held Korbin’s gaze for a long moment. “Like I said, go talk to Williams and see if you can get a confession. If he didn’t touch the engine code, then we need to find out who did before we end up stranded on Wonderland with them.”

“Yes, sir.” Korbin saluted and hurried off.

Alexander watched her go, thinking to himself that all of this was a bad omen. The start of World War III followed by two counts of shipboard sabotage made for an inauspicious start to their mission.

Hopefully, once their comm probe made contact with Earth there’d be good news.

*

“Message incoming, Captain.”

“On-screen, Lieutenant Hayes.”

An image appeared, full of snow and glitching distortion. After a moment the image stabilized and a familiar face appeared. It was President Ryan Baker of the Alliance. He appeared to be sitting in his office in the presidential palace, which was a good sign, but he looked grim and haggard, as if he hadn’t slept in days, and that was definitely a bad sign.

“Hello, Captain de Leon. I’m glad to hear that you and your crew are already well on their way. Due to the risk of the enemy intercepting this transmission I’ll keep it short. In response to your requested update on Earth’s situation, I am happy to inform you that the conflict was amicably resolved and a global catastrophe avoided.” President Baker smiled, but Alexander noted that the smile didn’t reach Baker’s eyes. “With respect to your mission, everything remains the same. Your messages to your loved ones will be forwarded as requested, but unfortunately we cannot get their messages to you until you either arrive at or return from your destination, due to the aforementioned risks of interception for longer messages. Also for that reason, this must be our last contact until then. Don’t reply to this message unless it is an emergency. Also, be advised that the Looking Glass is back under Alliance control, but keep watch for enemy probes and warships following you through. Good luck, Lincoln, and rest assured that your loved ones are all safe and well.” President Baker saluted and smiled another half-smile. “Alliance Command out.”

The transmission ended and Alexander shifted nervously in his acceleration couch. “That was vague,” he muttered.

“Should we reply with an update on our situation, sir?” Hayes asked from the comm station.

“The President said not to reply.”

“Unless it’s an emergency. Sabotage would qualify as an emergency, sir.”

“We caught the saboteur, and nothing happened. Besides, what are they going to do, turn us around so that the saboteur gets his way? Let’s keep it to ourselves for now.”

“Yes, sir.”

Alexander didn’t mention the possibility of there being two saboteurs, which if true, would constitute an ongoing emergency. “I’m going to the brig to see what progress has been made with Williams. You have the conn until I get back, Hayes.”

“Yes, sir,” Hayes replied as Alexander used the rails on his armrests to lift himself out of his couch. He glanced at the back of McAdams’ head as he did so, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully. She was busy performing systems checks and updates as ordered, but none of those updates would be applied until they were thoroughly reviewed by himself and Lieutenant Davorian. If she or one of her engineers had sabotaged the engine code and they planned to do it again now, then they were about to get caught.

Alexander landed on the deck behind his couch. Turning on his heel, he headed for the elevators and gestured for the nearest one to open. Once inside, he selected the black button near the top of the panel, the one labeled ‘Brig (59)’. It was a small and often-ignored deck right behind the forward airlock on level 60. It wasn’t an active-duty deck unless there were prisoners aboard.

As the elevator shot up from level 10 to 59, Alexander steeled himself to face Lieutenant Williams once more. He was still furious with his sensors operator. He had yet to select Williams’ replacement from the ship’s enlisted personnel. Whoever he chose, they were bound to be under-qualified at best, and incompetent at worst. Williams had also been the ship’s quartermaster and meteorologist, and replacing all of those roles was not going to be easy. The logical choice was Williams’ apprentice and emergency reserve, Chief Petty Officer Vasquez—assuming Vasquez didn’t know about and had nothing to do with the sabotage.

“What a mess,” Alexander sighed as the elevator doors slid open and he stepped out onto the brig. He walked up to the security doors and nodded to the pair of MAs standing there. One of the two turned and opened the door for him, and then Alexander walked through and stopped behind a second door. The first door slid shut behind him and then a green light came on above the second one a split second before it slid open.

In the room on the other side he encountered Commander Korbin and Lieutenant Stone both standing in front of a one-way mirror in a darkened observation room, watching Lieutenant Williams on the other side of the mirror. Williams sat in a brightly-lit interrogation room with nothing but two chairs, a table, and the beady red eye of a mobile security camera watching him from the ceiling. The sensor operator’s shoulders were hunched and his head was bowed, studying his hands.

“Report, Commander,” Alexander said as he approached.

Both officers turned and saluted before Korbin spoke. “Sir, Williams has confessed to everything except tampering with the engine code.”

“I see. Go on.”

“He insists he didn’t want anyone to get hurt and that compromising the ship’s engines like that would have resulted in injuries.”

Stone snorted. “And planting a bomb wouldn’t?”

Korbin’s gaze darted sideways to Lieutenant Stone and she nodded. “I agree.”

“What about the bomb? Did he explain how he did it?”

“He claims that he sabotaged that food crate while we were all in the officer’s lounge.”

Stone began nodding. “While we were busy mourning our losses he was taking advantage of our absence to compromise the mission. We should jettison him out the nearest airlock like the piece of garbage he is. One less mouth to feed.”

Alexander gave Stone a hard look. “I promised no executions. I’m going to stand by that, Lieutenant.”

“Yes, sir.”

Turning back to Korbin, Alexander asked, “What do the security cameras show?”

“There was a global systems malfunction at the time that Williams was supposed to be on the bridge. He admits to disabling the cameras.”

Alexander shook his head. “He had to know he’d get caught. Why go to all that trouble? We’ve all known Williams a long time. He’s not that stupid.”

“Stupid, no, but desperate maybe. When his wife said goodbye to him on Earth, she announced that she was leaving him for her lover. His three-year-old daughter probably wouldn’t even remember him by the time he got back, and the new husband would have become her father. Williams couldn’t stand the idea of his wife and daughter moving on without him, and he felt like he had nothing left to lose.”

Alexander turned to look through the one-way glass and study Williams. He could sympathize with some of that, but not to the point of wanting to sabotage his own ship. “Why try to get back to Earth if he’d already lost everything there? He had to know he might be executed for his crime. What could he possibly gain from that?”

“Like you, he was near the end of his term of service when he was assigned to Operation Alice. He saw the Alliance and the fleet as responsible for him losing his family. Sabotaging the ship wasn’t just a way for him to return home early, it was about revenge.”

Alexander sighed. “Well, I suppose that adds up. All right, Stone, lock him up and keep a guard posted. We don’t want him getting out, or someone letting him out. Until we have proof of who was responsible for the engines malfunction, we can’t entirely rule out the possibility of there being another saboteur aboard.”