Fatal Containment

Fatal Containment - Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Connor was manning the con when Cheryl walked onto the bridge. He turned in the chair and then walked over to where Cheryl was talking with the science personnel at the scan station.

"A moment, Lieutenant," he said gently.

The scan tech took the hint and found something else to do while Connor and Cheryl spoke in hushed tones.

"Are you okay? Did Dr. Spinoza help with those?" he said, pointing to her wrists.

"I'm fine, Commander," she said.

"Look," he started, "I was instructed to drop the investigation. The captain felt he could contain this until we dealt with the emergency on Mutara."

"I know, sir. But we couldn't just ignore someone who was willing to kill for this technology," she said.

"Turns out you were right," he said. "Do you know who locked you in the crate?" he asked gently.

"I could swear it was one of our marines," she said, "but I don't trust my memory. How could it be one of our own?"

"It's possible your attacker is working with others. We don't know how deep this goes," he said.

"Have you asked the captain?" Cheryl asked.

"During the battle—you were still in sickbay—the captain did something strange. He... hesitated," Connor said, furrowing his brow.

"He what?" she asked, startled. The captain was larger than life. He never hesitated—about anything.

"He froze. He allowed the first incoming missile to damage the ship when he could have shot down that missile with any one of the awesome arrays of firepower our ship has at its disposal. We do battle drills all the time. I never thought he would hesitate."

"I know why we're being pursued," Cheryl said. "Tyrell Sanders and Sandy Doval already have a prototype of the communication system. Someone knows and wants to acquire it before we reach Mutara."

Connor hesitated for a moment. "I'm sorry, Lieutenant. I should have trusted you."

"You had your orders," she responded. Connor nodded.

"What do we do about our marines?" she asked, but was quickly interrupted.

"Engineering to bridge," the command chair intercom squawked.

Connor walked over and answered, "XO here. Go ahead, Trevor."

"Sir, we're working on the damaged scan array, but we have a problem. The power inducer is completely fried. We don't have enough supplies aboard to fix it."

"Can it wait until we reach Jyestha station?"

"I suppose we could. It would mean we'll be partly blind on the port side. As long as no one sneaks up on us, we should be okay. Just wanted to let you know."

"Thanks, Trevor. Go ahead and log it, and we'll task Jyestha station to give us a new power inducer when we offload the medical supply."

"Very good, sir," Trevor responded and signed off. All officers maintained the proper honors when on duty. Trevor only called Connor by his first name when they were off-shift, especially since Connor only outranked Trevor by a few months of time in grade.

Connor returned to the conning chair and hopedthe rest of his shift would pass uneventfully.