After breakfast the next morning, Chris asked Fletcher to accompany him to check on the antenna array on the nose of the Command Module. It was the first chance Chris had to see the piles of debris stacked under the curve of the module. Everything they had cleared out of the Medi-Bay and gym was stacked in seemingly random piles. At the end were what he assumed had to be graves: two mounds of small rocks, each two metres wide and three long.
Fletcher nodded his head solemnly to each as they passed.
The originally flat front of the Command Module was a mess. What should have been a smooth, round surface with three armoured porthole covers and an assembly in the centre from which the main antenna projected, the crash had pummelled and gouged. No part of it was unscathed and most of the white latex paint had been abraded away. Both small microwave dishes, one on either side of the antenna, were missing with just remnants of their alignment mechanism remaining.
Someone had prised open the maintenance hatch on the base of the antenna and apparently been unable to close it again fully. Fletcher stretched up to it and flicked the hatch open with a screwdriver.
"Hugo said the circuits are intact, but there's no power," said Chris.
"Ship's batteries have gone, of course, there's no power, sir," Fletcher replied matter-of-factly.
"Is there any way we can transmit?"
"Aye, but it's gonna take a while, Commander. I'll need to remove a circuit or two, bypass some other things, then hook up two of our batteries. Give me an hour."
"Is the damage to the antenna going to be a problem?"
"Without the dishes, we won't have directional transmission anyway. It should work fine, at least enough to reach orbit."
"Okay, Fletcher. I'll leave you working on that."
As he turned away, he realised that Kate was standing a short distance behind him, waiting patiently.
"Have you got a moment, Chris?" she asked, then mouthed, "In private."
He nodded, then followed her until they were midway back along the side of the Command Module. She checked both ways along the module, then spoke in a low voice.
"It's Lucy, she was talking in her sleep last night. I couldn't properly hear what she was saying."
"What's wrong with that?" he replied.
"It was her tone, and the rhythm. It sounded like she was reciting verses from the Bible."
"Not that strange, but..."
"But because of the Holy Earth stuff going on back on Earth, the Colonisation Program thought it was important that none of us were believers."
"Bible quotes may be something from her childhood. Maybe she was dreaming about something in her past?" he suggested. "Also, she might have hidden her religious belief to avoid getting kicked out of the program. It's not exactly something they can test for accurately. It makes me wonder..."
His voice trailed off, and he stared out at the horizon silently for a moment.
"Wonder what?" she pushed.
"No, it can't be. Look, I shouldn't say anything, but just after we arrived, I received a message from Earth."
"Saying what?"
"It's commander level only, but I guess now we're cut off from Earth, none of that applies," he paused again. "There's an undercover agent from Holy Earth amongst our crew. I'm trying to work out who it is."
Once she had got over her surprise, she looked either way again, leant close and whispered, "No clues?"
"Lots of clues, but none of them point to anyone in particular. I don't even know if the deaths since we landed were accidents of deliberate... except for Diego."
"Diego? Someone murdered him?!"
"I didn't tell anyone, but someone cut his seatbelt part way through. They must have done it shortly before we swung the buggies over the crevasse."
"You didn't tell anyone?"
"I didn't want the saboteur to know I know he exists."
"Or she!"
"Maybe. Who had opportunity to do that?"
"I'm not sure," she replied.
"If they did it after we arrived at the crevasse, then just three people had access. Diego, Anil and Lucy. Fletcher was nearby, but I didn't see him go near the driving seat."
"It can't be Fletcher anyway, can it?" she whispered.
"It can't be Diego either. So, that leaves just Anil and Lucy."
"Anil volunteered to swing the second buggy over," she said.
"Which kept him conveniently safe from the dodgy seatbelt. This isn't narrowing it down."
"We need to set a trap," she suggested.
"Now that sounds like an idea, but how?" he asked.
"What's their mission?"
"Mission? To make sure our attempt to build a colony fails, I guess. How they intend to achieve that is anyone's guess."
"So, we give Anil and Lucy some key information that the saboteur will have to act upon. Whichever one does, they're our saboteur."
"It can't be Lucy, she's Colony Commander," Chris replied.
"And I don't think it's Anil, mostly because he's too nice," she said.
"That could be a cover..."
"Anything could be a cover, Chris."
"True," he conceded.
He was beginning to wonder how well he knew any of his crew.
"Did Lucy have opportunity?" she pushed.
"Yes. Yes, she did. She was the one who drove the flatbed buggy into position before Diego tried to swing it across," he replied, "And by cutting that seatbelt, it decreased the likelihood of her being in the compromised seat because I'd already allocated driving it to someone else. She couldn't do the front buggy as she didn't have any opportunity. The second was a risk to her because that's the one she's been driving all day. She would have known there was a strong risk that she could be swinging it across. If it was Lucy, the third buggy was her only option."
"And didn't you offer her the chance to drive the flatbed buggy over?"
"Yes," he nodded, "And she rejected it immediately."
"I think it's her."
"I need more proof than that before I confront her."
"Let's set a trap for her then," she smiled.
"Both of them, then see who bites," he replied.
* * *
Most of the Elysian survivors had gathered in both seating rooms. Chris had perched himself in the hatch that led on to the next deck up, to talk to everyone. With all the internal hatches open, as they were every day to air out the vessel, he figured that they could hear him throughout most of the ship.
He slapped the metal hatch to quieten everyone down and then began his prepared speech.
"We haven't had a lot of good news since we made orbit around this planet, so I thought it would be good to share a little positive news we do have. During the landing, this Command Module lost its ability to transmit radio signals to the other colonisation vessels. If the other vessels are to come to our aid, they need to know where we are and our current status."
"Do they even know we've crashed?" asked Hugo from the hatch to Seating Area 2.
"We don't know. It's entirely possible that they are unaware of our situation. This is why I've had Fletcher assess the damage to the transmission system. He assures me he's going to have the transmitter up and running within the next hour or so. That will allow us to send a distress call to our sister ships and for them to pinpoint our location and land near us. That will get us into a much better position than we are now."
"How long will they take to get here?" asked Amanda.
"That's really hard to say," Chris replied. "Could be in the next few days or a month or more. The only thing I can say for certain is that when we send the signal, they will be on their way."
"Will they want to land around here?" asked Hugo. "I mean, there's no ground clear of rocks suitable for putting down a ship."
"There's an enormous area on the other side of the ridge which would be perfect to land many modules. If they've got working landing beacons, they'll be able to bring their modules down within a few hundred metres radius."
"If they take months, we're going to run out of water," Hugo added.
"There's plenty of water to last us many weeks in Supply Module 1, we just need to cut out blocks of ice and get them back here. We can set up another expedition, using the buggies this time in a day or two's time. We should do some work on planning out a better way over the ridge first."
Dan Theriol raised his hand to speak. Chris pointed to him and nodded.
"Break out some explosives from stores, Commander. I can cut a road right through it, if you want?"
Chris smiled. "That would certainly make things easier. We should organise a work party to clear a path back to where we crossed the ridge, then you can work your magic on it."
He was about to speak again when he noticed Kate frantically gesturing to him from the further seating area. He could not decipher what she was attempting to signal, but he could guess.
"If that's all the questions, I'm going to see how Fletcher is getting on with the antenna," he announced, then dropped from the hatch and made his way quickly to Kate.
The ambient chatter level in the room quickly returned to normal. Kate was getting increasingly impatient and looked as if she wanted to drag him through the hatch into the lower seating area.
"I can't see Lucy!" she whispered as he reached her. "Anil's still sitting over there, but Lucy has vanished."
"Looks like we have our saboteur!" he whispered back, leading the way along the ship towards the rear.
As soon as they were one room clear of the rest of the crew, he broke into a sprint.
"Come on. She can't have had time to get far."
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