What Dreams May Come

Chapter 30: murder or cryo

Despite the initial hiccup, the party went fine. Lully pulled out some cards that he had printed and after a few rounds of games the others knew, Levi shared some games from his childhood, glad there was something from his past he could share and it be well received.

"It's weird that cards haven't changed much over so many years," Marcus noted, shuffling the deck.

"Humans are resistant to change," Levi pointed out. "And cards games are passed down from parent to child, friend to friend. Everyone knows a couple card games."

The door opened and they all looked up to see who it was. Walsh came into the room, with a dark scowl etched on his face. He seemed surprised at the group on his living room floor and looked about for Taylor, sitting on the couch, watching.

"We have leftover spaghetti, if you're hungry," she said.

"I've been looking for Levi," he said, instead. "Dylan and he weren't answering their holo-ribs. I see why."

Levi paused, leaving his cards facedown. "We've been here. Is something wrong?"

Walsh headed back to the door. "We'll be back in a moment, Taylor," he called.

Levi hurried to rise and follow the man out, puzzled as to why Walsh would want to talk to him specifically. Or rather, not talk to him: Walsh didn't elaborate further as they continued down the hall. He opened his office door and gestured for Levi to step inside. The captain, O'Keefe, was seated, and Walsh took up a spot leaning on his desk. Levi immediately wished that he had brought Dylan with him, as she was better at knowing when to stop arguing.

"You mentioned this morning that you have codes to get into the command center," O'Keefe said, getting right to the point.

"I do," Levi replied, warily. "My father set them up for me."

"Given your extreme willfulness this morning and your general disregard for authority, it is not in the best interest of the base for you to maintain these codes."

Levi blinked at the two men for a moment before replying. He had expected to be reprimanded for his behavior this morning, but he hadn't expected such a demand.

"What?" he finally managed.

"Your access codes," Walsh said. "You need to give them to O'Keefe and not use them again."

"I know what you're saying, I just don't understand why. And no, I'm not giving you my codes to erase because I disagree with you."

"This is exactly why," O'Keefe replied. "Because you told Walsh that they were master codes, and would let you into anywhere. You may have had your father's trust, but you sure do not have mine, Corlevi Hark."

The passwords must be hardwired into the ship, Levi realized. They couldn't erase them until they knew what they were, or they would risk losing data and other important access. Perhaps his father knew that Levi would be met with resistance.

"It's Levi," he insisted. "And I was given those codes for a reason, and that reason was exactly why you don't want me to have them. I disagree with you because you are morally wrong and someone has to be able to do something. Are you afraid I'll tell others that there's a ship heading our way? When you're the only one they can communicate with, you can crash the ship without another vote. When I can do what you are afraid to, that means people get a choice."

"There is no choice," Walsh snapped. "Even now, we're having to pull oxygen from our reserves to keep the base stable. While it will be fixed, this accident puts us years behind in terms of atmosphere generation and base growth. Adding even fifty people is too much for the system, let alone four hundred."