Murder on a Moon Trek

Chapter 15: Suspects

I should have expected the question. Vaan had tried to talk to me before turning on the microphone, and he'd even commented on my uniform. Back when we were in the space academy together, he'd had a leaning toward politics and I toward security. He knew what my dreams had been up to the point when the Federation Council officers arrested my dad. That's when I vowed never to become one of them. And here I was, dressed like my enemy. Neptune didn't know that. Nobody on the ship did. Except for the person sitting in front of me recording my interview for the council to judge.

"My reassignment to security was recent. I've been a member of the ship's crew since Moon Unit 5 departed."

"Your name wasn't on the roster that was submitted a month ago."

"I was a last-minute replacement for the uniform lieutenant. And before you ask about that, the original hire had to back out of her assignment because of a broken leg. For the ship to meet its scheduled departure date, all open positions had to be filled. Since I'd already passed the background check, I was assigned to oversee the uniform ward."

"Until two days ago, your records weren't in the computer manifests."

"Ask Neptune. He's the head of Moon Unit security. He'll corroborate these facts." Neptune had to. If he told them I was lying, we'd both be taken into custody and removed from the ship. I had the benefit of knowing Neptune could hear whatever I said thanks to the communication device embedded in my new uniform. I didn't believe for a second he wasn't listening in.

Vaan seemed to find my answer suitable. "Describe what happened the night of the engineering emergency."

"Captain Swift told Neptune to check out the engineering quadrant. They suspected sabotage, and he wanted Neptune to investigate."

"Were you both on duty?"

"We were at First Dinner. The entertainment was about to start."

"Were you there on official security detail? First Dinner is for senior officers and passengers."

"We were dining."

"Together?"

"Yes."

Vaan's expression changed. I could have told him the real reason I'd been there with Neptune. I didn't. He didn't deserve it.

I'd often wondered how it would go the first time I saw Vaan after Federation Council voted to convict my dad. Now I knew. Vaan's questions were like a knife to the scar tissue of a previously broken heart. Even his attempted apology felt thin. His eyes searched my face seemingly looking for signs of the Sylvia he once knew. I couldn't let him see the vulnerability just below the surface.

"There was a vacant table and Uma Tolst, The Space Bar hostess, notified the captain," I said. Without thinking about it, my hand felt for the communication device embedded in my new uniform. "He instructed Neptune to be at dinner, and Neptune took me."

"Oh."

"It wasn't—" I cut myself off. I knew it wasn't a date and Neptune knew it wasn't a date, but there was no reason Vaan had to know that. "During dinner, Captain Swift told us about the problem. We slipped out right before the entertainment started."

"And you went to engineering. Did you have any idea what you would find when you got there?"

"Neptune said there was a problem with the computer readings, and that security protocol mandated he be there to oversee the technicians."

"Why did Neptune take you with him? If that's what the problem was, there wouldn't be a reason for a uniform lieutenant to go with him."

I wasn't about to tell Vaan that I'd been in Neptune's custody at the time. I searched for a plausible explanation that wouldn't raise additional questions. Unfortunately, there was only one thing that sprang to mind.

I sat up straighter. "I already told you. Neptune and I were at First Dinner together. Considering the circumstances, I would think you'd understand exactly why he didn't leave me alone. Gentlemen aren't expected to ditch their companions in the middle of an evening."

Vaan's brows dropped down over his eyes and his lips pursed together like he'd bitten into a rotten lemon. He studied me for a moment and appeared to choose his words cautiously. "How well do you know Neptune?" he finally asked. I suspected that wasn't one of his preselected questions.

"Well enough to accompany him to First Dinner."

"Neptune has a reputation in the galaxy, and it's not as a gentleman."

While I was both considerably interested in the details of Neptune's not-a-gentlemen reputation and the fact that Neptune himself was probably listening to the conversation, I fought to control my reaction. "Sometimes people aren't what they seem." I smiled a knowing smile.

Vaan looked away. I felt a wall of tension between us. That's what you get for choosing sides, Vaan Marshall. Or what you don't get. You don't get me.

"You arrived in engineering and found two men down. What happened next?"

I went on to describe the scene as we'd discovered it: the flashing red lights that cast the quadrant in an overall gray state, the sirens that made it impossible for Neptune to understand what I'd tried to tell him when I first saw the two men lying unconscious behind the computer.

"When Neptune rounded the corner and saw the men, he wanted me to help carry them out. By that time, I'd found the hose wedged in the seam between the wall panels. I felt the air on my fingertips first and then sniffed it. I knew right away what it was."

"And that was what?"

"Carbon monoxide. When we were kids on Plunia, we used to stand outside the carbon mines. Remember? It was the only place where we could escape the mostly pure oxygen that came from the ice mines. It made us dizzy—almost like how I feel when I drink too much Saturnian wine."

Vaan held his hand out as if he was about to touch me, and then he stopped and put it back onto his lap. The memory was there right below the surface. That's where we'd spent our first night together. The intoxicating combination of love, lust, and carbon monoxide had kept us out past curfew.

Vaan missed class the next day. As a result, he'd been enrolled in remedial studies and given a battery of tests to gauge his dedication to the program. I'd been grounded. The only time I was allowed to leave the mines was to attend class. And even then, I'd had a chaperone. My dad was between deliveries of ice to neighboring planets, and he shuttled me back and forth to the space academy. Those were the last memories I had of my dad before he was sent away. And in hindsight, I'd do it all again.

"So that's it. I inhaled the gas so it wouldn't spread deeper into the engineering room while Neptune got the men out."

"Lt. Stryker, for the record, what is your background?"

"My mother's family is from Earth and my dad is Plunian."

"Where were you raised?"

"Plunia."

"What made you think that you were equipped to inhale direct carbon monoxide and survive?"

"I didn't think. I just acted. The day I boarded the ship, when I found the second navigation officer dead in the uniform ward, I was too late to save him. I wasn't going to let that happen again. I saw two men passed out on the floor. I saw the hose jutting out from between two panels on the wall. I tried to get Neptune's attention, but the sirens were too loud for him to understand me. The only way to buy time for him to get them out was to stop the gas leak, so I stopped the leak."

"That's not how your mind works. You're naturally gifted at the space sciences: physics, chemistry, geometry, and trigonometry. You've had a sense of them since birth. You wouldn't just inhale a poisonous gas without first assessing the odds, knowing the risks, calculating the possible damage to you and others. You're not spontaneous like that."

I glared at him. "Don't pretend you know me, Commander Marshall. There is more to being a member of Moon Unit 5 security team than what you read in my file." For a few long moments, we stared eye to eye. The room grew hot, and my skin felt prickly.

Neptune entered, breaking the tension. "Is this interview over? I need Stryker in security," he said.

Vaan and I stood up. Vaan switched the recording device off and said, "I hope you know what you're doing, Lt. Stryker. There's only so much I can do to protect you, and you've already willfully placed yourself way outside that zone."