After the battle, Cheryl made her way to the brig once more. Her heart raced as she reached for the door handle, but she hesitated, her hand frozen in mid-air. Images of germs crawling on the surface plagued her mind, an obsession she couldn't shake. Not now!
She pulled out a small square handkerchief from her pocket, using it as a barrier between her hand and the handle. As she opened the door, she reminded herself to wash the handkerchief later exactly five times, as always.
Inside, she found Tyrell sitting in his cell, looking just as miserable as before.
"Sandy Doval is dead," Cheryl said flatly.
Tyrell simply looked down at his hands. "How did it come to this?" he asked quietly.
"It's your fault," she said.
Tyrell looked up at her. "I know," he whispered. "She gave her life to save yours."
"You sent that image to Sandy's tablet, didn't you?"
"Yes," he said.
Cheryl sat still for several heartbeats, but her mind was anything but calm. Thoughts swirled relentlessly; she couldn't trust Tyrell, she mustn't miss any details, was she sanitizing enough?
Tyrell took a deep breath, and then tears streamed down his face. "Max and I never agreed on how to move forward with this communication technology," he started.
Cheryl remained silent, but her obsession to remember every single detail was gnawing at her. Her hand twitched as she felt an overwhelming compulsion to write down everything he was saying. But she didn't want to seem distant or suspicious. She remembered what her therapist had taught her about grounding herself.
Closing her eyes for a second, she focused on her breathing and whispered to herself, "Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five." It was a technique she used to ground herself – counting by fives to bring her back to the present.
She opened her eyes and focused on Tyrell, who continued speaking.
"But you found a different way, didn't you?" Cheryl prompted, felling calmer.
"Yes," he said. He looked up, his eyes wet with tears. "I didn't swim in the same circles as Max. For him, funding always came easy. I always had to do it the hard way. For me, machines were a way for me to bridge the gap.
"I always knew technology would unlock the treasures of the universe. When I discovered the power of nanotechnology, I knew I had found a way to grow mankind to a higher form of reason and thought.
"With the power of machines, I knew mankind would make huge strides forward in every endeavor and create interfaces to connect the brain to the rest of the world. I met Sandy when we were at Sirius University. She was so bubbly and bright. Her mind was able to find intuitive leaps from one concept to another. I designed and programmed Corvus to help her test the mathematical models that her brain kept discovering. We loved each other," he said.
"So, Max didn't know that you had already solved the system. That you had already created a prototype."
"No. I think he suspected, but he had no proof. He believed Candice was the key. Her ability to unravel the mysteries of the human mind intrigued Max. He had never met anyone like her. Sure, there were other candidates with some ability, but Candice already had advanced degrees in neuroscience and psychology. Her groundbreaking research caught the attention of prominent scientists in the field, and she soon became known for her unique ability to predict future events as a precognitive. Her rare gift allowed her to tap into glimpses of future events, albeit only in fragmented and incomplete forms.
"Max couldn't pass up that golden opportunity to show her off in front of the emperor. He believed he could tap into her ability to find entangled particles, but Sandy was the real genius. If not for her, Max wouldn't even know about the theory of particle clouds.
"Deep down, I knew Max would never get his system to work. That is why Sandy and I developed our own solution."
"And that system is?" Cheryl prompted.
"I guess it isn't a secret anymore. I have nanites attached to my cerebral cortex. They pick up my neural impulses, and I can manipulate systems and machines outside of my own body. Unlocking her cabin was child's play."
He took a moment to cry. Cheryl looked at him with pity. Such a brilliant man, but tormented by the horror that Cheryl was going to die locked in a crate on her own ship. Slowly, the pieces began to come together.
Max was using smoke and mirrors to get funding for a system he and Candice might never get working. But Tyrell had already beaten him to it. With his technical solution, he was able to communicate with anyone else who had the nanites in their brain. Sandy had found a way to target entangled particle clouds to use as a transceiver. The technology sounded fascinating to Cheryl. She wanted to unravel exactly how it worked, but there were larger problems.
Someone was pursuing their ship. And by transmitting a message implicating Tyrell, he would take the fall once they reached a fleet base, especially now that a foreign ship had attacked an imperial warship. The emperor would have Tyrell executed.
But it didn't make sense. Why was someone trying so hard to frame Tyrell? She had checked the sensor logs as he had mentioned, and he had an alibi for Max's murder.
Cheryl felt a shiver run up her spine. That meant that the murderer was still loose, and Candice was quickly becoming the chief suspect in her mind. How convenient it was to have extra sensory powers that could pinpoint a certain lieutenant trapped in a crate—especially if Candice was the one who put her there!
"Lieutenant Kinson, report to thebridge," came the voice from the wall speaker. She couldn't put it off anylonger. She needed to see who else was involved.