Dangerous Toys (Part Three)

Patrica watched as the Captain sniffed around the incapacitated crewman that had attacked her. Her plasma-lance had been replaced by the security guards plasma rifle pointed directly at the man’s face. Medbay staff were on their way to install him in a nice, comfortable room with a heavy lock. She figured this was now someone else’s mess and went back to rebuilding the lighting panel. The Captain had been clear that her next move was a conference with himself and the Chief of Security so she whistled for Loki.

The security team swung around at the high-pitched sound from the human, automatically raising their weapons while the Captain looked up with astonishment. It appeared that the Xenos around here didn’t know humans could whistle. Only Loki reacted as if it was normal, chuffing at /Scentofhappy/ to follow and running back to his companion. Still delighted with all the recent praise he ran quickly and the Captain got to see those long legs hurl Loki down the corridor in seconds. It gave him a much clearer idea of how the attack had happened. He nodded to himself. Whistle codes made sense for a hunting animal, much more useful than shouting out in large spaces. He guessed it had become a habit since this was hardly such a place. Alas, his species had never developed such skills. Perhaps there was a device he could use? Questions for another day. “Engineer, you never cease to amaze me. I will meet you at Security once I’m done here. Please go there directly.” He nodded to one of the guards, “If you would accompany her? I think Loki has had enough excitement today.”

The Chief of Security was a deeply unhappy man. His Ship had run like a dream until the human had kicked over a rock, a rock he had never even suspected existed. It made him feel foolish and unprofessional. In order to try and regain some self-respect, he was running every test that he could think of on his systems and checking over every crewmembers background. So far he had found nothing. Normally that would have cheered him up but now that meant that obviously, someone out there was better at this than he was. He fought the gloom that was descending and started again.

The Engineer packed her evidence and began the short trip to the Security Office. Loki was skipping ahead and scouting, his nose poking into everything. /Scentofhappy/ was excitedly doing the same, faithfully copying his actions. Patrica smiled at the sight, knowing that one day that puppy would have a nose that equalled or surpassed Loki’s. The Captain was a lucky man. She listened in on the conversation between them,

‘/peoplesSmell/Old/many/searchingNewSmell/’ dutifully the puppy sniffed around. ‘/Old/notGood?/’ Loki sniffed, ‘/Guarding/NewSmellsGood/Warning/’ They continued to check ahead as the Guard and the Engineer watched with amusement.

The Medics bound the offender’s arms as he lay quietly on the ground. Satisfied, the Captain moved with one of his Security team to meet with the Engineer, leaving one to get the prisoner into custody. He was still at a complete loss as to what was happening on his ship and the criminal was unhelpfully completely unknown to him. All he could scent was the blood and the pain, with some small suggestion that he came from the Cargo hold. After they left the Medics carefully loaded the man onto a stretcher and sprayed the air. The remaining guard sniffed, “What’s that?” the Medic grinned, “That’s our alibi.” He stepped out of the way just in time for the guard to see that the other medic was holding a gun. The accomplice swiftly shot the guard in the face. The prisoner quickly climbed off the stretcher and put on a medical coat handed to him by his accomplice. “Thanks, that bloody animal was a nightmare. Who allows something like that on a ship?” The guard had crumpled to the ground and the two medics lifted the body onto the stretcher and began wheeling it away.

The compound sprayed by the assassins began dissolving away any and all scent traces in the corridor. It left a nice pine-like smell instead, one that would tell the Captain exactly nothing.

The Engineer was laying out the dubious equipment she had uncovered, waiting for the Captain to arrive. The Chief of security was unfamiliar to her and seemed to have little interest in conversation right now. The dogs had stationed themselves at the door, making sure that they would be undisturbed. Seeing /Scentofhappy/ trying to imitate Loki’s stance was adorable. She glanced around the office, obviously home to many passing shifts and littered with personal items. Odd flags, coats and the debris of long hours sitting in front of screens. The equipment looked old and unloved. She silently pushed it higher up her things-to-do list. The Ship seemed to have such an unexciting and stable trade-route that she hadn’t spent much time thinking about it.

The Captain arrived, leaving the Security guard outside to amuse the dogs. He could scent the suppressed panic from his Security Chief and the breakdown of the human battle-drugs. His Engineer seemed to have recovered remarkably easily from what could only be regarded as attempted murder. She seemed absorbed in the bits and pieces of tech lying in front of her. “Engineer, I hope you are well. I cannot fathom how such a thing has happened on my ship. Never had we had violence against a Ships Officer, please forgive me for such a failing.” Even as he said it, it occurred to him that she was entitled to break her contract without penalty. She had been promised a safe working environment and no-one would quibble if she decided a knife-wielding lunatic qualified as a reason to leave. Patrica looked up, still absorbed in the technology, “Oh that. It’s fine Captain, I have Loki if I feel worried. This is more interesting.”

She held up the first part, “Captain, I don’t recall exactly when you took Command here but this stuff is older than me. This ship seems to have a parallel system running through at least some of the systems. I’ll need to go back over the work I did earlier since I may have just chucked this stuff into recycling. It could have been linked somewhere and I wouldn’t necessarily have noticed.”

The Captain was just happy that he didn’t seem to be losing his human and her dog anytime soon. “Patrica, if you don’t mind, can you explain to us why that is important? There are many redundancies in our systems.” The Chief of Security dragged himself away from his screen and paid attention. Even he could take the hint about which ‘us’ the Captain meant.

She nodded, “Okay, say you have some dark plan and you’re building ships. Say you want to do things that should perhaps stay hidden, well why not wire up a few ships with a separate system.” she paused for a minute, “Call it a parasite system. It can just sit there for years, it doesn’t interfere with anything unless that ship is doing something or heading somewhere of interest. Then you put your people on board and you have the perfect cover. This is pure speculation, right up to the bit where a crewman attacks me with a knife. Why do that if you are going to be caught standing over a body? Unless your pretty sure you won’t be found and, probably neither will the body.” She turned to the Security Chief, “I’m sure you have cams on that corridor. Can you show us the attack?”

The Chief hit a few buttons and the main screen lit up. The cam followed Patrica as she dismantled the Comms panel and they watched as she pulled out the unwanted additions. Then it followed her to the lighting alcove. It watched as Loki sat on guard, then the alarm as he warned the engineer. They saw Loki bound away at speed towards the attacker, still unseen on the recording. Then Patrica igniting the plasma-lance and moving towards the event. At no time was the assailant visible. Patrica held up her hand, “Okay stop it there. I know how this system is supposed to work and there is no way that the Cams should have ignored the attack. Someone or something kept it off your systems. So now we have another problem.”

The sheer scale of the human’s suggestion, the logic of it hit the Captain hard. “I am being used as some kind of puppet? This Ship, my Ship is being run by some cabal for their own purposes? Do you think I am shipping murderers about the galaxy like some kind of gullible fool?” Patrica held up her hands, “No Captain, I imagine that it would be very rare to actually use one of these ships. On Earth, we had such a thing as a Q-ship, a military ship disguised as a civilian vessel in times of war. Would it be such a stretch to start building that into your ships just in case? Or perhaps such a system could be discovered and used by criminals. I have no idea. Your people are a complete unknown to mine, I have no idea if such things are allowed. I can tell you that any Ship’s Engineer worth the name must have known about it.”

Neither of them was prepared for the blistering explosion from the Chief of Security. He immediately began ripping the panels from his console, swearing in a variety of languages. Patrica raised her eyebrows at the Captain, “Sir, it might be better if I looked after the systems…”