Music again flooded the room and Justin looked over to see O'Brian looking back at them, his hand dropping from the computer console.
"Why?" Justin asked.
O'Brian pointed to the screen and then at the loudspeaker. What it implied was deeply troubling to Justin. He had never heard of an officer eavesdropping on his crew; first of all, it was against the law, and secondly it implied a lack of trust that was extremely disturbing.
"Hey, what did I do?" Matt asked.
"You exist, that's reason enough. So keep a low profile and knock off making a spectacle of yourself."
"Me, make a spectacle of myself? You gotta be kidding."
"I'm not."
"Yeah, right. You're just jealous because Tanya shot you down and I was hitting it off with that girl from Company B, Marissa Livollen."
"Come on, Matt, you know me better than that."
"OK, but you're askin ' me to be what I'm not. I can't help but cut it up a bit at times."
"Well, if you want to stay out of trouble, believe me, don't draw attention to yourself. All right?"
"Yeah, sure, buddy, no problem at all."
Justin and Matt grabbed a quick meal back in the galley after they finished their work. Before cutting them free O'Brian sent the two below to the hydroponics tanks to bring up some fresh tomatoes and cucumbers for a salad. Heading aft, they passed through part of the engine room. A lone enlisted man was in the back, and Justin paused for a moment to study the layout. The shielding to the reactor core covered the entire aft bulkhead. They passed through the heavy lead-lined door and stopped again to look at the reactor and engine pods, which jutted into the bowels of the ship. It was an older design, a Beta-class nuclear pulse engine. The energy of the reaction superheated the reactor mass, which could be almost anything but was usually just liquid hydrogen. The high-stream jet it expelled produced far more energy and thrust than any of the old-style chemical-reaction rockets.
Going down a narrow circular staircase they reached the hydroponics deck. The deck was added on in a retrofit when the ship was reconfigured for extremely long distance hauls. Matt wrinkled his nose at the smell even though the filters had removed the most unpleasant aspects of the recycled waste water and ship's sewage.
"Come on," Justin laughed, "you have a hydroponics unit on your sailing pods."
"Yeah, but that stuff is your own, not somebody else's," Matt replied.
"I should have taken you to a pig farm down in Indiana," Justin laughed. "Boy, what a smell this is OK."
Justin opened a bag and plucked several dozen tomatoes from a vine along with a dozen cucumbers.
He was surprised to see the wide variety of plants O'Brian was cultivating in the hydroponics farm. There were fast-growth space-hybrid lettuce, cucumbers, several varieties of tomatoes, some broccoli, and a wide variety of herbs. On higher racks sorghum was laid out in orderly rows, specially cloned to produce the maximum turn around of CO2 to oxygen and thus act as a natural filter system.
The room ended in another barrier of heavy shielding, marking the forward sector leading into the lower storage areas, weapons lockers and missile room.
It seemed like it'd be easier to return back up to the galley that way but O'Brian had strictly forbidden it, saying that MacKenzie had a problem with enlisted personnel treading anywhere into officer's country without permission.
Returning back through the hydroponics farm, Justin and Matt floated up the ladder, cleared the shield airlock and went back to the galley.
"Ah, the happy peasants, dressed in colorful folk costumes, returning with the harvest," O'Brian chuckled. "Stay with me and you two will be ready to ship aboard one of them granola organic habitats by the time you're done. You'd fit in right well with them aging old hippies gone back to the simple life, eating their stone-ground barley while orbiting Venus."
"Hippies?" Matt asked.
"20th century Earth word. I think you solar sailors would fit right in."
Matt, not sure if he had been insulted or not, handed over his bag of tomatoes. O'Brian tossed both of them a couple of cherry tomatoes as a reward. Delighted, Justin popped them into his mouth. Matt looked at them curiously, tried one, smiled, and then downed the rest.
"All right, you two youngsters, supposed to be study time, so get to work now and stay out of trouble."
Back in their room Justin saw Tanya and Madison hunched over the computer screen, which was flickering and wavering.
"Something's up," Madison announced as they came in.
"What's wrong with the computer?' Justin asked.
"We were trying to link into Uncle to get the upload on our Astro-Nav assignments, and the signal kept wavering. Uncle said that solar flare activity is way up and interfering with all signal traffic."
"But there's more," Tanya interjected. "I tapped into the news net, just curious, wanted to see how my cousin did in the ballet competition in Saint Petersburg. There's been an incident."
"A what?"
"Some damn traitors, that's what."
Justin turned and saw Colson, with several other cadets, standing in the doorway.
"So what do you think now, Everett?" Colson asked, his voice cold and threatening.
"Think about what?" Matt asked.
"Some of your buddies seized a Fleet ship today, that's what."
Matt was silent.
"It was carrying some personnel working for my family. They're holding them hostage. It's piracy and kidnapping!"
"Maybe they have a legitimate complaint," Matt replied coolly.
"Legitimate complaint! I'll tell you what a legitimate complaint is," Colson shot back. "If they don't space everyone involved, that will be the crime."
"Ever see someone die in vacuum?' Matt asked through clenched teeth.
Colson was silent.
"No, figured you haven't. I have, and I sure as hell have a complaint against those responsible."
"Maybe they deserved it for their own stupidity."
Matt started to move towards the door. Madison sprang up and got between them.
"So you're in agreement with these traitors then, aren't you?" Colson shouted.
"You're damn straight I am if they are doing anything against you and those like you."
"Bet you wished you could join them," Colson said.
"Don't answer that, Matt," Madison shouted. "He's just trying to set you up."
"I think you know the answer to that," Matt finally replied, struggling for control.
"Colson, get out of here now," Tanya shouted. "Just get out of here."
Colson looked over at his companions. "See, I told you so," he announced and then with a nod of his head he motioned for his group to leave.
Matt looked back at Justin. "I'm gonna wind up killing that guy some day," Matt said.
Justin looked over nervously at the computer, unable to reply.
Chapter VI
"All hands, you are aware of the report of increased solar flare activity. We've just received advance warning from our Mercury Solar Observation Station that an eruption of unprecedented proportions has ignited on the surface of the sun. Background radiation levels are expected to soar nearly eight hundred percent in the next twenty-four hours, with spikes reaching two thousand percent."
Justin looked over at Matt as Doctor Zhing showed the last image broadcast from the Mercury observatory before the storm disrupted all transmissions. It was hard to judge the size of the solar flare by the picture, but Justin guessed it was at least several hundred thousand kilometers across and millions of kilometers long. He hefted the anti-radiation suit that he had just been issued. In spite of zero gravity he judged the suit had several hundred pounds of mass. The only difference between the suit and full EVA gear was that there was no backpack, gloves or faceplate. The extra mass, he guessed was most likely made up of a synthalead lining.