Chasing the Stars (40 page)

‘Why have you been killing your own?’ I asked. ‘You’re responsible for all the so-called accidents that have plagued this ship – the airlock, the engine conduits, the mess hall. One elite to another, I’d like to know why?’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ said the doctor, giving me an indulgent smile. ‘Are you ill, Vee? Stressed? Now that you’ve officially registered me as the ship’s doctor, I’m the only one on board who can legitimately relieve you of your duties. You know that, right?’

‘I know. And with your expertise and your nanites still in the ship’s computer, I don’t doubt that you could do it too. Like I said, I’d just like to know why? I give you my word as an elite that I won’t repeat a word of our conversation.’

The doctor swatted aside my question with a shrug and an imperious wave of her hand. ‘What are you accusing me of? The only mindless killer on board is your brother.’

‘Come on, Doc. No one else is around, it’s just us. Let’s face it, no one will believe a word I say now. Commander Linedecker will take over this ship and take you all to Mendela Prime and there you’ll stay, which I suppose is what you really wanted all along.’

‘NO!’ The doctor raised her voice. She glanced around quickly, before lowering her tone to a more normal level. ‘I want to go back home to Earth.’

‘And I was going to take you there, so why set me up? Why make it look like I’m the one responsible for the incidents in the airlock and the engine room and the mess hall? What did I do to make you hate me that much?’

I’d confided in this woman. Trusted her. I’d sincerely thought we were friends. Apart from Nathan, she was the one with whom I felt I had most in common. She’d been like a second mum to me. God, but my judgment of people sucked.

‘Of course I don’t hate you, Olivia. You’re one of the few people on this ship I can tolerate. I’m on your side, I always have been.’

‘You have a strange way of showing it,’ I scoffed. ‘Setting me up to take the blame for your actions.’

‘Olivia, the ones who died, they weren’t your friends,’ Doctor Liana insisted. ‘Jaxon was plotting with Darren to take the ship from you from the first day they arrived on board. And Ian and Corbyn had agreed to join them.’

Stunned, I stared at her.

‘Exactly. I couldn’t let them do that,’ said the doctor. ‘I was genuinely sorry about Mei and Saul, especially Mei. She wasn’t allergic to art and culture like most of them on Callisto. Her death was a real shame. It was just supposed to be Jaxon and Darren in that airlock but Jaxon was alone when he met with Mei and Saul to try and persuade them round to his cause. Jaxon reckoned the airlock was the only place on board where conversations weren’t recorded.’

‘They aren’t recorded in the sleeping quarters either,’ I pointed out.

‘Yes, they are. They’re just securely stored and never accessed unless someone dies in their room or something happens that needs investigating,’ said the doctor. ‘Jaxon and Darren held all their clandestine meetings in the airlocks until the . . . accident.’

‘How d’you know all this?’

‘They tried to recruit me too,’ the doctor replied.

‘And Mei and Saul?’

A pause, then the doctor shrugged. ‘Collateral damage. Accidents happen.’

I gasped. I couldn’t help it.

‘Like I said, I’m sorry about Mei and Saul, but they shouldn’t have been in the airlock.’

Whoa!

Keep talking, Vee. Don’t show your revulsion.

I had to appeal to the part of her that considered the drones beneath her. She thought she and I were alike. Elites. Kindred spirits. I needed her to go on thinking that.

‘And those in the mess hall?’

‘You mean the bores at my table?’ said Doctor Liana with scorn. ‘All they could talk about were the merits of utility dispenser Prop versus the stuff they used to swill back on Callisto. That and what their lives would be like on Mendela Prime. I could’ve told them, their lives on Mendela will be exactly what they were on Callisto. That class of person takes their ignorance with them wherever they go.’

‘Max and Dooli
died
.’

‘Then I did them a favour,’ Doctor Liana said evenly.

Oh. My. God! I tried hard to keep my expression neutral but it was so hard. Now that the doctor was talking, she didn’t seem to want to stop and I wasn’t going to get in her way.

‘What was wrong with talking about their dreams for their lives on Mendela Prime?’ I asked. ‘Was that a bad thing?’

‘I want to go home, to Earth,’ said the doctor. ‘I don’t want to go to Mendela Prime first. I don’t want to go there at all. I’m sick of space, I’m sick of moons and miners and morons. I’m sick of transports and ships. I want to go home. And with what I know about everyone on board this ship and the Resistance movement and all the pirates and traders who help those on Callisto and the other moons to escape, I can easily buy my freedom.’

‘So you were willing to trade their lives to get what you want?’

The doctor opened her mouth, only to snap it shut again. She seemed to realize that she was being a little too outspoken. Her gaze grew speculative as she regarded me.

‘If I were responsible for the incidents on board, which I’m not, but if I were, I’d be willing to do whatever it takes to get home with no detours along the way,’ said the doctor. ‘Of course, I’m just guessing as to what the motive behind all these accidents might be.’

‘Mei, Saul, Jaxon, Ian, Corbyn, Max and Dooli – you’re responsible for all their deaths. Doesn’t that mean anything to you.’

‘Meh! Prove it.’

I shook my head. ‘I don’t need to prove it. Commander Linedecker is no one’s fool. She’ll figure out what you’ve done.’

‘Catherine? I don’t think so. All she cares about are her precious drones. I suspect she’s convinced you’re responsible for all those deaths. She’d much rather believe you’re responsible than her vulgar colleagues. There’s a woman who’s forgotten what it’s like to be civilized.’

My jaw dropped. ‘And murdering people? That’s civilized behaviour, is it?’

‘I was helping you,’ said the doctor. ‘Protecting you – just like your brother here.’

I was about to throw up.

‘I could always tell the commander the truth,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘Tell her about this conversation.’

‘You gave me your word that you wouldn’t, or have you been around drones for so long that you can’t remember how to keep a promise? Besides, why would Catherine or anyone else on board believe a word you say?’ asked the doctor. ‘It’s your word against mine and everyone knows that you and your brother are stone-cold killers.’

‘I’ve restored the three robotic laws in my brother. He can’t harm any more humans,’ I said. ‘What I did was wrong but I was all alone on this ship and acted out of fear. You? You’re deranged. You’re Norman Bates with a medi-kit. That’s the big difference.’

‘Norman Bates from the film
Psycho
?’ Doctor Liana smiled in amusement. ‘I’m probably the only one on board this ship who would’ve got that reference, which shows the type of people I’ve had to associate with for the last several years. Well, no more. I want to go home. I want to be with my own kind, with people like you, not with ignorant drones.’

Oh hell, no!

‘I’m nothing like you,’ I said, outraged, my mask slipping somewhat.

‘Of course you are,’ the doctor smiled. ‘You have a love of literature and films and music and art, all the things that separate us from beasts and drones.’

‘Don’t you think it’s damned hard to care about music, literature and culture when you’re close to starving, working in inhuman conditions in the mines and having to fight every day to survive?’ I asked scathingly. ‘Don’t you have any empathy? D’you lack the imagination to realize that? If so, then perhaps you should read more books.’ I clamped my lips together to stem my verbal tirade against this bitch.

Silence reigned between us.

‘Tell me something, still speculating of course,’ Doctor Liana said at last. ‘What made you decide I had something to do with the deaths on this ship?’

‘You had the technical know-how and everyone at your table in the mess hall got ill – except you,’ I answered. ‘I think you spiked the jug of water, probably after you poured out a glass for yourself, and then you poured a drink for everyone else and sat back to watch them all become violently ill.’

‘Maybe I just hadn’t got round to drinking my glass of water yet?’ Doctor Liana suggested.

‘Your glass was three-quarters full and there were water stains around the rim. You drank some but you didn’t get ill. I didn’t need to be Stephen Hawking to figure out the rest.’

The medical bay doors slid open. A slight turn of my head confirmed that Commander Linedecker stood behind me, flanked by Harrison and Alex who were both armed.

Doctor Liana frowned at the sight of them. ‘What’s going on, Catherine? Why are you here?’ the doctor asked.

Only when she’d finished speaking did she realize what had happened as her voice bounced back at her from the corridor outside the medical bay. With dawning realization she turned to stare at me.

‘Aidan’s been broadcasting our entire conversation everywhere throughout the ship, except for in this medical bay,’ I told her. ‘I gave you my word that I wouldn’t repeat our conversation and I kept my promise.
You
told everyone what you did, not
me
.’

Doctor Liana shook her head. ‘I’m disappointed in you, Olivia. Using such an old trick to catch me out.’

‘I’m not ageist, Doc. I don’t care how old a trick is as long as it works,’ I told her.

‘Doctor, you will be escorted to one of the detention cells and there you’ll stay until we reach Mendela Prime,’ the commander told her.

‘You can’t lock me up. You need me,’ the doctor replied, her tone confident. ‘These people in here will die without me.’

‘I think more than enough people have already died with your help,’ said the commander. ‘You will come with me.’

‘You can’t do this. I may have made a breakthrough in finding a cure for the Mazon virus which wiped out the original crew of this ship. You need me.’

That made me start. Hope warred with disbelief inside me. Had she really made a breakthrough when it came to curing the Mazon virus, or was this a bluff? I glanced at the commander, who slowly shook her head.

‘You will not be given another chance to harm anyone else,’ the commander insisted. ‘You will have no further access to the ship’s computer or any of the crew.’

Dr Liana turned to me expectantly, like she was waiting for me to leap in and speak on her behalf. Part of me was stunned at her brazenness. I must admit, more of me was intensely sad that the woman I’d considered a good friend had turned out to be so morally warped. But what if she
had
found a cure? I dismissed the thought. The commander was right. She was too dangerous to be left to her own devices. Hopefully, if she was telling the truth, she had left all her notes in her computer logs so we’d still be able to access and study them.

‘Liana, you’ll be escorted down to a detention cell,’ said the commander, her expression hard as stone.

I thought the doctor might argue, but after shaking her head at me as if I were a disappointing specimen, she allowed herself to be led away by Harrison who looked like it wouldn’t take much for him to shoot her on the spot. The commander stayed put.

‘Aidan, you can stop the ship-wide broadcast now,’ I said.

Aidan nodded.

The commander beckoned me out into the corridor. Aidan and I followed her out of the medi bay. She waited until the doors had closed behind us and Alex had moved back a discreet distance.

‘Vee, was it true what you said about reverting this robot’s programming so that it can no longer hurt humans?’ The commander pointed at Aidan.

I nodded, not appreciating the way she was titling my brother as ‘this robot’.

‘Then I want this thing in a detention cell also,’ said the commander. ‘No one will feel safe with it on the loose.’

‘It wasn’t his fault,’ I protested. ‘I altered his programming. I never dreamed he’d end up hurting anyone.’

‘But it did.’

‘Please stop calling Aidan “it”,’ I snapped.

‘Very well then.
He
is dangerous and I’m asking you, for the good of those left on board, to allow us to put him in a detention cell. I’m assuming the nano-field can hold him?’

‘He can’t pass through it without damaging himself,’ I said unhappily. ‘And he’ll stay put until told to do otherwise.’

This was so unfair. Aidan shouldn’t have to suffer because of my error in judgement.

‘Commander, if you lock him up, then you should do the same to me. I’m just as responsible as he is,’ I said.

‘No,’ said Commander Linedecker. ‘We need your help to get to Mendela Prime. You’re the captain of this ship.’

‘Not any more. Go ahead and take over. You run this ship. I’ve had enough,’ I said vehemently. ‘I’ll give you the executive code and my command bracelets. I’ll tell you anything you want to know.’

The commander stepped forward and lowered her voice for my ears only. ‘Oh no you don’t, Vee. You are the captain of this ship. That means you live with your failures as well as your successes. That means you do what needs to be done for the good of the majority, not yourself. That means you stand up and take responsibility for your actions. You don’t get to go hide in a corner. Not on this ship. Not in this lifetime. This crew needs you. So here’s how it will work. Your brother will be escorted down to a detention cell and there he’ll stay until we work out what to do with him. And you will get your arse in gear and get back to the bridge.’

Stunned, I stared at the commander. ‘Well . . . I consider myself bitch-slapped!’

The commander cracked a rare smile. ‘Are we clear?’

‘And the ones who died?’

‘Let’s concentrate on the ones who are still alive,’ said the commander.

I nodded reluctantly. ‘Aidan, I want you to go down to the cargo hold and place yourself in a detention cell. You will stay there until further notice. D’you understand?’

My brother nodded. ‘Did I do something wrong, Vee?’

‘Aidan, you didn’t, but I did,’ I replied. ‘And now we both have to pay for it.’