33
The entire crew were assembled in the shuttle bay, humans and sophonts alike, awaiting an announcement from Captain Bryson. Normally such announcements would be made over the ship-wide comms system, but it was obvious that whatever the captain wanted to say to them, she felt she had to say it to their faces.
Holly entered the bay, First Officer Palin by her side, and stood before her crew waiting for the murmuring to subside. Once the room became quiet, she looked at each individual’s face before speaking. They were good men and women; she trusted them all implicitly – which made it all the more difficult to believe that one of these people before her could have sabotaged the drones. She moistened her lips with a wet-wipe and began to speak.
“You are all aware that the three drones h
