We are getting closer. Slowly, but surely we have managed to narrow the group of suspects. Now there’s only five left. There’s only one downside I can think of.
“I’m quite positive that it can’t be echo. I ran a thorough check on him. There’s nothing, absolutely nobody at the surface waiting for him. He got out of the pod week prior all this shit.”
Echo. Captain. Logan. Me. The chief engineer. Our suspects. So, in fact, there’s no list of five. There are four separate lists of possible suspects, each innocent having their own, and the real perpetrator knowing the truth.
“Yeah. Captain? Who knows. She does have a history. She left behind at least two lovers. And chief engineer? I know exactly jack shit about him, and the captain says that he enlisted just few weeks ago, but that he’s been out of the pod at least three years already…”
Logan’s pondering the possible suspects, trying to arrange the list. He’s purposefully avoiding one name. He’s trying not to say it out loud, but…
“I know that you don’t have a reason. Your possible reasons went straight to hell with Dwayne. I… I was sorry to hear about it, kid. I guess he was okay, taking care of you and everything…”
Maybe I should tell him. Explain how it was between me and Hicks. Perhaps then he wouldn’t be such an ass. Perhaps then he would see why it wouldn’t matter even if I slept with the whole goddamned crew.
Oh, I did like Hicks. I guess I loved him a bit. I still miss him. But it wasn’t the same kind of love I feel for Logan. When Hicks died, I think something in me died just a little with him.
If it had been Logan…
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Dinner is a forced farce of politeness. Everybody’s too wound up and scared to say anything to anybody. Everybody knows that there’s a traitor in our midst that’s stopping us all to flee to safety. Everybody’s eating, but reluctantly. What if the cook did it? What would stop him from poisoning us all?
“It’s good. Eat up.”
I’m going to trust Logan’s nose. He’d probably pick up if there was anything wrong with the thin soup we’re having. It’s nearly cold and quite tasteless. Scent is a funny mix of sweet and salt water. It’s full of nutrients and vitamins, low on the scale of waste production, just as everything else we’re going to eat during this merry trip of ours. I’m already missing the energy bars and that strange, yucky paste, but those are reserved for ground troops only.
“I’ll tell the captain to arrest the cook. Perhaps the real traitor will get careless.”
They should arrest the cook anyway. That way we would have to turn to stacks of rations stored at bay, because currently he’s the only one who knows how to operate the kitchen.
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We’re moving. Just a short burst away from the orbit, to strengthen the illusion that we actually know what we’re doing now. The cook is steaming in his quarters, probably plotting his revenge as we keep spinning the net tighter. Now we know that it can’t be the chief engineer.
“He would have sabotaged the engines rather than let us leave the orbit. Fuck. That doesn’t leave too many options now, does it…”
I wish Logan would keep his mouth shut, especially around captain, because where I’m standing at she’s starting to look an awful suitable candidate for the role of a traitor. We did barge in hastily. We did practically force her to sell this ship to us. We did force her to leave the ground before she had everything finished.
“That doesn’t leave too many options at all…”
Captain is agreeing with Logan now, her gaze following my every move.
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