Tori (Patreon)

Tori is starting to see just how bad things might be...

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Tori’s ruined ears perked as soon as the airlock began to cycle a second time, but Security Chief Tipohee was already waiting at the door. The poor guy looked frantic. He’d been beside himself ever since the captain had mentioned the word “purge”.

“What did he say about the list?” demanded Tipohee.

Gutassi stumbled out of the lock. He seemed overwhelmed and didn’t even look at his security chief. “He … didn’t seem particularly interested in it,” mumbled Captain Gutassi.

“What?” shouted the chief.

The captain shrugged and leaned against the wall beside the airlock. “He didn’t ask for it, so I didn’t give it to him.”

Tori’s heart pounded hard in her chest. What did that mean? Did he not want the list because he’d already agreed to the new plan of purging everyone in charge? Or maybe he didn’t want to do a partial purge and had planned on killing everyone!

Tipohee sank to his knees. “He didn’t even want it?”

The captain flailed like he didn’t know what to do with his paws. “I don’t… The commissioner doesn’t really seem all that concerned about the killer or the video,” he explained. “He just wanted to yell about how engineering is being run. His priorities don’t seem to be the least bit similar to the deputy commissioner’s.”

Tori stood, afraid to get her hopes up. “He … doesn’t want to purge us? Well, that’s great news!” she shouted.

Gutassi nodded, his ears sagging with relief. “Yeah, if he doesn’t care, then that gives us until the next inspection to find the killer, when we have to face Daskatoma again.”

Tori’s elation fell back down a notch. “But Daskatoma isn’t the one who wanted the purge,” she said. “He said that he was setting up all the plans for his uncle!”

“Who cares!” shouted Tipohee. “He doesn’t want it now. Maybe he changed his mind? The important thing is no purge!”

“I care,” muttered Tori, but she felt alone on that as the other two didn’t appear to share her sentiment. “Why would he have lied about that? Or maybe Troykintrassa is lying now? Could he be trying to keep us from panicking? So we don’t scuttle the ship or something?”

“Don’t say that!” pleaded the security chief.

She scratched her head. “Yeah, that makes no sense either. Why bother coming aboard if he had already decided to purge? He’d just send troops to carry it out.”

The guys were ignoring her, talking rapidly about emergency plans and martial law. “Could this all have just been a trick to make us work harder on the case?” If so, she didn’t appreciate it. She muttered, “What a shitty thing to do.”

Tori pulled out her strand and dialed Sese’s number. “Hey, Tori. How goes it with the commissioner?”

“Better than I expected,” said Tori. “More mysterious than the trinity maybe, but that doesn’t matter. What about the sick list?”

“Thirty-seven names,” said Sese.

“That many, huh?” said Tori. “Still better than ten thousand, I guess.”

“True,” said Sese, “but half of those were out yesterday too, leaving me a list of sixteen. So, I started at the bottom of the ship and I’m working my way to the top.”

“Good thinking, Sese!” said Tori with a grin. “I knew I asked the right geroo. How many have you done so far?”

“Five,” said the big geroo. “Two colds, one gal who stayed home with her sick cub, a really bad hangover, and a twisted ankle. No signs of wounds, bandages, or medical foam yet. One sec.”

Sese must have put down the strand because the camera display moved abruptly and turned sideways. Tori could hear Sese knock on another door. A long pause. Another knock. When she came back on the screen, she had a puzzled expression on her ears. She said, “Interesting. No answer.”

“Who is it?” asked Tori. “Tipohee gave me access to everyone’s records. I’ll look them up.”

“Okay, the name is ‘Thojy’.”

“Thojy?” Tori squeaked. “He was at dinner last night! Remember? He sat on the other side of Runo’oa from you. Oh ancestors, Sese. Be careful! I heard him say that he hated Nija!”

“Oh really?” she said, her eyes opened wider. “Well, we may just have our geroo. Hanging up now to override the door.”

“No, wait!” shouted Tori. “Stay there. Call some other officers to back you up. Don’t go in alone!”

Sese broke the connection and a second later, Tipohee’s strand beeped. He looked at the screen for a moment before giving it a tap. The minutes dragged like hours. Tori wanted to scream, to do something, but what? She felt so helpless.

Finally, her strand rang, and she answered it instantly. “Gone. Apartment’s empty.”

“Empty?” gasped Tori.

“Well, no sign of Thojy, at least,” said Sese, “but there are some interesting things here; blood in the bathroom, a can of medical foam…”

“Wait a second,” said Tori excitedly. “Commissioner Daskatoma gave me a program to track who was near a crime scene. Perhaps we could use it to track Thojy’s strand!”

“Don’t bother,” said Sese. “There’s a stack of four strands left on the table. I’m guessing his, his mate’s, and their two cubs.”

Tori blinked in surprise. “They left their strands? What do they plan to do without money? They can’t even unlock a door without their strand!” Although, she thought, if he has been able to get past locked doors without a trace, perhaps he doesn’t need his strand…

“But they didn’t leave everything behind,” said Sese. “Check this out!” She turned her camera around and pointed it at the family shrine—hanging open … and empty.

Tori covered a gasp. “They took their ancestors’ necklaces?”

“Yup! I have no idea where they think they’re running to though. The ship’s only so big,” she chuckled. “The only way out is an airlock or the commissioner’s shuttle, but I’m not sure which is worse, poisonous air or no air at all.”

“Wow,” sighed Tori. “Well, good job on finding this guy, Sese. Whether he killed the other eight or not, it’s pretty obvious he murdered Nija.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” said Sese. “Hanging up now. I’ve gotta contact the rest of security and organize a search of Thojy. We’ll try to get the captain to broadcast a ship-wide alert, get everyone on the lookout for him.”

“Okay, keep me informed,” said Tori, “and be careful. Thojy may have more supporters right now than we do. A lot of the crew see him as fighting back against tyranny.”

“Oh joy,” Sese said as the call disconnected.

Tori jumped as the captain’s strand emitted a quick series of shrill alarm beeps. At first, she wondered if it was Sese asking for a ship-wide broadcast, but when he answered it only a moment later, Tori didn’t recognize the voice on the other end. “Sir, we’ve got trouble in the plumbing—”

Plumbing? wondered Tori. Does every crisis come across the captain’s desk?

Gutassi interrupted with, “I’ve got the commissioner here, right now, Lieutenant. I don’t have time for leaking pipes. Just assign an engineering—”

“No, sir,” the lieutenant insisted. “I mean real trouble in plumbing. I’ve got radiation counters on the wastewater pipes going crazy!”

He shook his head slightly as if to clear his ears. “Cross-contamination in the waste water? Could we have a reactor leak?”

“I don’t see how, sir. The reactor’s still running sluggishly, but no worse than it has been all week. Plus, the readings aren’t matching up, unless someone lugged a bucket full of coolant up five decks before dumping it down the drain,” said the lieutenant. “I’ve pulled everyone out of recycling. I don’t think any of them have been exposed, but we need to power the trinity down so we can check for contamination.”

At that, Chief Tipohee gasped.

“No! No! No!” commanded the captain, near-panic in his voice. “For the ancestors’ sake, do not power down the trinity while the commissioner’s still here! The last thing we need is for him to be trapped aboard while the system discharges.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Pull out as many crew members as you can and put radiation monitors on the rest. Make them work in protective suits if you must,” said the captain, his ears forward in concentration, “but we need to keep the trinity online at least until the commissioner is back through the gate—”

Icy dread set Tori’s hackles on end when Tipohee put his paw over the captain’s arm, lowering the captain’s strand. The security chief looked at him and whispered, “Five decks above the reactor?” He glanced toward the airlock for a split-second, just long enough to make his point clear.

Tori’s ears perked. Radiation sounded very bad. Surely something like this didn’t happen often!

On the other end of the captain’s call, the lieutenant spoke up, “Sir? Is everything okay? You trailed off on me—”

Gutassi looked at the deck beneath his paws then raised his eyes slowly as if counting the decks between the reactor and the commissioner’s office. Ears opened wide, he suddenly raised the communicator to his face, so the screen was only centimeters beyond his nose, his tone controlled but urgent, “Listen closely, Lieutenant. I want a complete lock-down on all knowledge of this radiation leak.”

“Captain?”

Tipohee snapped his fingers and it jarred Tori’s attention. The chief pointed at the strand in Tori’s paw and then straight down. The rusty red geroo nodded and put the device back into her shoulder holster.

“Anyone who knows anything, anyone you’ve scrambled to deal with it, anyone who might have been told anything,” said the captain, “lock … them … down. Take away their strands. Isolate them physically if you don’t have complete confidence in their devotion to the chain of command. I don’t want them talking to anyone.”

“Yes, sir?” The lieutenant sounded as if she’d obey but didn’t follow what had escalated the crisis so suddenly.

“Then I want you to find a computer tablet that’s equipped with a radiation scanner and download all the information you’ve gathered. Plus, I want a full download of the health effects of radiation exposure from the medical library, any health data you might have on the commissioner, all relevant krakun health data regarding exposure—”

“Sir, you don’t think—” she tried to interrupt.

“Put it all on the tablet, Lieutenant. Put it on the tablet—personally—and then sever it from the network. Understood?” He paused for only a moment. “I don’t care if you have to crack the damn thing open and physically remove the networking chips. Sever it from the network and bring it to me, here in front of the commissioner’s chamber.”

“Yes, sir. Right away—”

Tori watched the conversation in silence, her stomach twisting with dread and ears up.

“And Lieutenant,” the captain added before the officer could close the connection, “I also want you to send me the best doctor we have. I don’t care if he’s in the middle of surgery. Get him down here, yesterday, and make sure he talks to no one.”

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14dkn-EDcldJqjYXZgMVmX5_LJg9T749HoVdwignU2Vo/edit?usp=sharing

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