Starflare Universe – Ghosts-6
1009 Words
Joe sat at the dinner table which was now being used for a meeting. Sitting with him were his core crew along with Doug to represent the pilots and Blaze the troopers. Sparks was there too, at Joe’s request.
“Alright,” Joe said. “Now we’re safely in hyperspace I want us to try and work out what the hell was going on with the Sundrenched. Does anyone have any ideas other than it being haunted. We’ll get to that last, I don’t want to get hung up on that… possibility.”
“Some sort of setup,” said Janine. “Maybe an insurance job. I mean, what’re the odds of another ship just happening to be in the same area of space in the absolute middle of nowhere so they could detect the distress signal? That’s a millions to one possibility.”
“Then why leave the ship intact?” Blaze asked. “Why not destroy it so there’s no evidence to contradict your story? Why leave the ship there waiting to be discovered?”
“The odds against anyone discovering it are huge,” Joe said. “Even with Sasha’s abilities it was still damn lucky that we found it.”
“Unless that was a setup too,” Doug muttered. “It seems awfully convenient. It stinks of a setup and your new pet freak is neck deep in it.”
Sasha leapt to her feet. Joe motioned for her to sit down, even as he replied to Doug.
“Cut it out Doug!” Joe said. “We’ve been over this already. I picked the area we would search, not her. There’s no way she could have influenced that.”
“Maybe not, or maybe so. She’s told us she’s psychic but maybe she lied about her powers. What if her abilities let her influence you? What if you picked this area because she wanted you to.”
“That’s enough! Have you ever seen anyone that could do that, that could force someone else to their will?”
“No, but my cousin did! Or was it my cousin’s cousin? Anyway, what if she was on that ship to start with? Maybe she made them all think the generator was going to blow, then she planned to come back and get the cargo…”
“Doug, just shut up,” snapped Joe. “This is serious and your paranoia isn’t helping.”
“You’re calling me paranoid? What do you expect when…”
“Enough!” Joe roared. Silence fell, though Doug’s eyes narrowed. “This won’t get us anywhere. We’ll pick this up again in half an hour. Doug, go find somewhere you can calm down.”
Doug stood up without acknowledging the order and stamped away. The rest of the group broke up with quiet grumbling. Joe leaned back in his chair, worrying about Doug. The pilot had always been outspoken, but never so aggressive with it. Was something about the situation getting under his skin? Or was it something about Sasha, about her powers, that was the problem?
Joe shivered as a blast of ice cold air found its way down the back of his neck. As if they didn’t have enough problems, now the environmental controls were playing up. It wasn’t unknown for the Panther, or even unusual, but right then the last thing he needed was another problem.
* * * *
Doug stamped off to the hangar, trying to bite down on the anger inside. He needed to make the captain understand how dangerous Sasha was, and to do that he needed a cool head. Otherwise his opinions would be dismissed.
He’d been suspicious of her from the moment she came aboard. Her meeting the captain while he was out drinking was just too convenient, and the speed with which the captain had decided to take her on was suspicious too. Doug wondered if she’d cast some sort of spell on the captain. She’d admitted to being psychic, after all. Or maybe she was using something more conventional, some form of drug.
Whatever it was, Doug was certain they hadn’t discovered the Sundrenched by accident. Sasha had led them to the ship for a reason, one that had most probably been completed. It didn’t seem to have been a trap, at least not an obvious one. Had there been something on the ship she wanted recovered? Something amongst the cargo maybe? Maybe he should…
“Doug…”
Doug spun around but there was no one behind him. He shivered as a cold draught blew down his neck. What had he heard? The voice had been quiet, little more than a whisper, but he could have sworn it called his name. It had sounded familiar, somehow, a voice he recognised but couldn’t place.
He must have imagined it. There was no one there. Unless… could the witch have done it? Could she be starting to mess with his head just like she’d messed with the captain’s? He shivered at the thought, then headed off quickly, wanting to put as much distance between himself and her as he could.
* * * *
Janine sat in the pilot’s chair, monitoring the ship. It wasn’t strictly necessary while in hyperspace but something had her on edge. She’d been flying the Panther long enough to learn the ship’s moods and something was definitely wrong with it.
There were no warnings or alerts, the ship was reporting that everything was fine, yet Janine was certain something was out of kilter. She started the diagnostics running for the third time, determined to find what it was that she sensed.
Her screen flickered. Fast moving symbols smeared their way across the screen, symbols she’d never encountered before. Janine’s heart leapt into her throat. Moments later everything returned to normal. Everything except Janine’s nerves. Now she was certain there was a problem and she intended to find out what it was.
She dived back into the ship’s systems, quickly finding there was no trace of the strange effect she had seen. As far as the systems were concerned it hadn’t happened. That could be very bad or very good. If it indicated the issue was isolated to her display then it was a nuisance but nothing more. If instead the effect was erasing evidence of its passing then that was a lot worse. She needed to find out which explanation was correct, and quickly.
- Writer
