ATALIS

CHAPTER 7: DETECTIVE GEORGIOU

The three days since the water incident had been so shockingly dull that I am astounded that anything exciting happens on this ship at all. All traces of the liquid had vanished. Everyone at the pool made a full recovery. No one knows where it came from, and everyone exposed to it developed a strong desire for chocolate soon afterward.

I sit at the edge of my bed and think about boring things. I should make my bed. I need to organize my closet. I should clean or do something productive.

Instead, I sit at my bed, and I wait. I have been waiting for days for word from Nathan, and nothing has come yet.

"Intercom, call detective Georgiou."

"Detective speaking," the voice on the line says. A renowned woman who had been claiming boredom aboard the Godspeed finally had some action.

"I'm Hayden Eldridge. I wanted to know if you'd seen Nathan Hopkins in the last few days?"

"No. Actually I'm about to file a missing person's report. His wife says that he hasn't been home. This is extremely unlike him. Usually you can't get Nathan out of the office or away from the work if you pried him from it. Thus far, we haven't heard anything from him since the call about the strange blue liquid."

"I saw him in a janitor's room shortly after that, and nothing since."

"I can notify you as soon as we have something," she offers.

"Please. I care about Mr. Hopkins."

"We all do. Take care, Miss Eldridge."

The line disconnects.

I stand and make my bed, then attend to the other chores I have around my room. Once those are finished I exit my room and head to a familiar destination, and one that could get me into significant trouble.

SEARCHING FOR NATHAN

I stand in front of the central computer core. The massive computer rises up and into the ceiling, and has a small seat in front of it that is made for me. I sit down on it, and it fits my every curve. I close my eyes and a headset descends over my head and I interface with my network jack into it.

I need to find Nathan Hopkins. I input the command line into the computer and then search through the live feeds, until I find him, 19 minutes after I've begun my search. I imprint his location into my memory and then disconnect from the central core. The chair folds up and I walk quickly for the doorway. Nathan is in trouble.

Deck 10, section A, subsection 21. I run for the lift. I have to hurry if I want to make it in time. I slide onto the lift and press the button for Deck 10 and then wait while the lift descends. There is no faster way through a ship this size. The lift can travel speeds up to 80 MPH through the interior of the Godspeed. I plummet down the levels and watch the indicator tick down from Deck 3. Down and down I go.

The lift finally stops and the doors open. I burst through the doors and run down the hallway, weaving through small crowds of people. A right. A left. So much farther to go. I keep running until the crowds thin out, and then at the end of the hallway I see a group of people that are staring at each other. They turn toward me as I approach them and then step in my way to block me. I stop in front of them and look from one to the other. None of them are familiar. I have never seen these people before. They do not exist in my database.

"Who are you?" I demand, with all the authority I can muster in my voice. They look at me. Their garb is curious. A uniform similar to that of the Godspeed but with symbols on the collar that I don't recognize. Symbols that don't match the ones from the Promise. Another language?