05/'08 - The Aphelion Project, pt. 2 Post by kailhofer » October 19, 2008, 05:49:05 AM Pt. 2 of this challenge was to complete the story "Old Wounds" by Bill Wolfe, winner of Pt. 1, in an additional 1,000 words or less Top User avatar kailhofer Editor Emeritus Posts: 3245 Joined: January 01, 1970, 11:00:00 AM Location: Kaukauna, Wisconsin (USA) Contact: Contact kailhofer 05/'08 - The Aphelion Project, pt. 2 Post by kailhofer » October 19, 2008, 05:49:33 AM Old Wounds The Conclusion By: Bill Wolfe "…just how it is, Captain, we simply won't know until he wakes-up. And Doc says that will take a while. Over." Macridin paused. Damn that turnaround time. Barnes was in sickbay, hooked to monitors feeding information back to Earth; five-minutes delayed, of course. The three remaining crew were all with him. Mac hated having to admit it, but he didn't know who to trust. The odds that all three were in on it were as slim as he could make it. Now, at least, it was possible that the perpetrator wasn't even on his ship. He hoped so. He might even have prayed it was so. "Al-Hassanieh to Macridin on squawk-one-fiver-nine-deuce. Mac, it's official. Everybody on Ap-One managed to circumvent the blackout order. I got two who built their own radios and heard it on NPR, one who's been getting CNN Live-Feed on a jury-rigged monitor, and two that have been in contact with a high-school on Earth where the kids built their own laserlink. These were all in place before the blackout. Worst part is, I knew about that last one. I just forgot. Over-and-out." Macridin sighed. It was the same story on his ship. These were all very clever people or they wouldn't be here. They also had a lot of time on their hands. The only person who hadn't built or rigged some kind of com system was Lieutenant-Commander Dunsirn. Maybe Barnes, of course, but he wasn't talking. They all knew now that Barnes was the father of Ophelia's child. Which meant that if the rumors of her assault were well-known, there were four suspects on his ship and five on Ap-One. Mac disregarded the Captain. He didn't have the technical expertise. Macridin knew he was innocent, and Barnes, of course. It looked like a panel overloaded when Barnes logged-in for his daily checks. It damn-near took his head off. Oh yeah, these were all very clever individuals. Control had informed the Captain that anyone—on either ship—could have hacked that panel. Everybody had the codes and inter-ship telemetry wasn't affected by the blackout. Control also said that it may have been a malfunction. It was time to talk to Ophelia and—hopefully—get this mess sorted.
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"… You could say, Commander, that I got just what I asked for. Sidney Barnes. What are the odds?" The wistful smile on her face was both a puzzlement and a relief for her commanding officer. Regardless of the rumor mill, she was no longer on his suspect list. "For what it's worth, the incident in the infirmary was true. Do you remember Gunny Jones? Tenth-degree black belt in Aikido, super-marathoner, took the Gold for Decathlon in the twenty-eight Games? I trained with him weekends while I was at the Academy. I had a real crush on him. He told me that if I could catch him, I could have him. Took me six weeks running through the Virginia countryside and some strategically-placed barbed-wire from an old fenceline, but I managed." "And you never told anyone?" Macridin was trying very hard not to show how stunned he was. You never know about people. You just never know. "None of their business, was it?" "No, Lieutenant-Commander, it wasn't." He paused for a deep, focusing, breath. "So he wasn't the father of your baby." "Commander…Mac?" her eyes asked for a variance in formality. He nodded. "My sister can't have children. I wouldn't tell you why if you ordered me to do so, let's just leave it at that." Macridin nodded again, she'd given him fair warning. "And I was about to embark on a career that was going to take me into harm's way, Big Time. You know me, Mac. Do I strike you as the kind likely to have an 'accident,' when it comes to something like this?" "No, Ophelia, you don't. You plan everything and execute your plan with precision." "Thank you, Sir. Well this was no accident, either. We hear a lot on this mission about our place in history. Well, I wanted to leave something of myself behind if I got blown out of the sky over Tehran." Macridin was beginning to see where this was going, but he let her go at her own pace. I asked the sperm bank for a donor with blue eyes, blond hair, in excellent health, and brilliant. His face must have given him away because she answered what he dare not ask. "My sister's husband—David—is a blue-eyed blond, that's why. Achmed—my grandfather's name—looks like he could be their son. I wanted a stranger, however, because imagine how awkward things could get if David was the biological father. This was my child, my shot at immortality, and the father forever anonymous. Or so we thought…" "I could see Barnes making a…uh…donation." "Yeah, he's got the arrogance for it, I agree." Again that wistful smile. "But you know? I really did get what I asked for. Lock, stock, and genius IQ. I have to admit, I've wondered. He's a really great kid." "So much for my suspects." He was incredibly relieved. "Oh? Commander?" He didn't know what it was, but something had changed. She was his exec, again. "No motive. It must have been an accident." "I agree with you there, Sir. It has to have been an accident, if you get my drift, Sir." "Explain, Lieutenant-Commander." "Twelve people, two years crammed together. If someone did this, they'll soon find out they had no cause. Barnes won't be in danger." "But if… " "Are you going to lock someone up? Where? Twenty-four hour guard? Who can we spare for that?" "So you're saying…" "It was an accident, Sir. Plain and simple. We're on a mission and we just can't spare anyone to be guilty of attempted murder." "It's not on the duty roster, is it, Lieutenant-Commander?" "No Sir, it's not."
The End
[/quote] Top User avatar kailhofer Editor Emeritus Posts: 3245 Joined: January 01, 1970, 11:00:00 AM Location: Kaukauna, Wisconsin (USA) Contact: Contact kailhofer 05/'08 - The Aphelion Project, pt. 2 Post by kailhofer » October 19, 2008, 05:50:10 AM - Winner - All for Love By: N.J. Kailhofer Macridin stabbed his finger on the send button. "You saw the orders as well as I did. We'll store him outside until we orbit, then bury him after we land. Look, Captain, all due respect, but Ophelia's still a member of my crew, and she will be there, not locked up. If she didn't do it, I want them all at the funeral where I can see their faces. Mac out." And stop calling every two hours! I'll put my own house in order.
***
Barnes floated in his spacesuit in the center of the Hab module, tethered to the floor below. They hadn't known where else to keep him. The crew waited on the far end of the room. None of them seemed broken up. Takuya and he were supposed to be pals, always playing video games against each other. Sergei wouldn't even answer Macridin's questions without instructions from his government. Hell, Helga wanted to use his body as fertilizer on her damn plants. Burying him offended her German sense of efficiency. Ophelia wasn't anywhere near them. No one wanted to meet his eye, except her. Ophelia's eyes blazed, no doubt due to the zip ties binding her hands and feet. Mac cleared his throat. "A body doesn't belong in here." Takuya looked up, puzzled. "This room is where we eat, where we gather, where we exercise, or where we watch tv. This place is the heart of our home here, a place of life." Helga watched him now, too. "But Sidney Barnes is dead. He can't eat with us. He can't exercise, can't watch that damn soap opera. But he can gather with us one more time, so we can all hear how he was murdered." He could have heard a pin drop. "Sidney Barnes bled to death after a thin object was stabbed into his chest until it almost came out his back, but not before it ripped a hole right through his heart." Sergei looked uncomfortable. Ophelia stared defiantly. "Someone in this room did this." He tilted the body so they'd have to look at the face. Mac floated beside the body, his face next to Barnes'. "Someone in this room murdered this man." He paused, studying the faces. Helga looked uneasy, maybe annoyed. Takuya looked shocked. Sergei swallowed, watching the faces around him. Mac continued. "I'm going to tell you all a secret. Barnes here had a kid." Ophelia looked at the floor. Mac floated over. Softly, he asked, "It was a boy, right?" She nodded. "What did they name him?" "Peter." Sergei asked, "Why are you asking her?" "The blackout is because of their child. Earth is calling it a sex scandal. They didn't want you to see the newscasts." Mac moved close, and took her hands. "Look at me. Did he rape you? Is that how you got pregnant? You have to tell me." Her eyes were brown pools. "No." Helga's tone was sharp. "What this have to do with Barnes' death? Why are you asking her this in front of all of us?" "Rape is a good motive for murder." Their faces were all confusion, nothing else. He turned back to Ophelia. "How did you get pregnant, then? You showed up at the hospital all banged up." She shook her head. "No. SERE wilderness survival training. We did a night drop and I landed in a rapids. I was beat and scratched to hell by the time I got out of that river. When we got back, I had liberty. I was blowing off steam in this quiet bar across town and saw Sidney. He always made me laugh. I--we both drank too much." "Why the secrecy?" She sighed. "My mother was born in Pakistan. She's very traditional. You know what it was like before we invaded. I didn't want her to know. It was hard enough for her to accept the life I chose." He looked directly into her eyes. "Did you kill him?" "No. I was Com Officer that shift but I was supposed to do an interview for Good Morning America at 03:00, so Sidney was going to relieve me at 02:00 so I had time to clean up for tv. He didn't show. I went looking for him." Mac paused. "I have direct orders not to do this until some formal inquiry back on earth." He cut Ophelia loose. "But they can kiss my ***. This is my command." Mac said to the rest of them, "That leaves one of you as prime suspect." Sergei protested he'd hear from the Russian government. Takuya howled in loud Japanese. Helga glared at him dangerously.
***
Mac closed the door of his quarters. He took out a tab of Kentucky rye and squeezed it dry. He just couldn't pin it on any one of them, and couldn't lock them all up. They needed to do their jobs. Ophelia knocked and floated in. "Mac," she said, "I know you read the 'eyes only' message for Al-Hassanieh ten minutes before the blackout. I saw what you did." "What?" "Sidney was recording segments for National Geographic before the blackout. Outgoing data gets held in the temporary queue until it's copied into the send queue. Send is erased by the blackout protocol, but until new data writes over it, it's still in the temp queue." "Why, Mac?" Mac frowned. "Your chemist friend's thesis was about canceling the effects of alcohol before it's absorbed. Don't you see? He was sober when he slept with you. He used you. Kissed you. Touched you." "I couldn't live with that." She put her hand on his. "But I could. I knew." Mac exhaled slowly. "What are you going to do?" Ophelia paused. "The mission is more important. The ship needs a commander." She stopped in the doorway. "But after this mission is over, the truth needs to come out… from you." Mac watched her disappear down the corridor. By then you'll have forgiven me… my love.
The End