‘Mmm,’ grunted Halman. ‘When what we should be doing is getting that damn shuttle back.’
Alphe stretched out one hand to Halman, palm up, as if trying to physically hand over the decision. ‘Your call, but that’s my take on it, yeah. If we had the extra staff I asked for ten months ago. . .’ He trailed off pointedly.
‘I put it to Farsight Platini,’ said Halman, with irritation prickling in his voice. He was used to being harassed for more staff and more resources, and his default position had become defensive and somewhat pessimistic over the years. ‘Talk to them about it.’
‘Yeah, good idea,’ said Alphe, sounding irritated himself. ‘Oh wait — we can’t.’
‘I refuse to play this game, Alphe,’ said Halman, a little haughtily. ‘Just cut that shit out and put your helpful hat back on, please.’
Lina saw Alphe clench his teeth, drawing deep breaths between them. He looked like he might be counting to ten in his head. ‘Sure,’ he said at last. ‘Sorry, Boss.’
‘Don’t sweat it,’ said Halman, more diplomatically now. ‘Throw one of your guys the solar panel bone to chew on if there’s time. But first, I want you to get those Kays modified and checked over. I want them as clean as we can get them.’
‘Sure,’ said Alphe. ‘No problem.’
‘Next on the agenda,’ said Halman, stroking his balding pate. ‘Any news as to why this has happened? Motive, etcetera?’
‘Well, Hobbes has something for you there,’ answered Ella. ‘Hot off the press. Hobbes?’
‘Yes indeed,’ said Hobbes. ‘We took some blood tests from Eli when he came into medical. They showed positive for fader.’ He made a there-you-go gesture with his hands, palms spread.
Halman’s brow furrowed deeply. ‘Fader?’ he parroted. ‘Where the fuck did he get fader from?’
‘From Platini, of course,’ replied Hobbes. ‘Via shuttle.’
‘So those fucking dockyard drones have been crating up psychoactive drugs at Platini?’ asked Halman incredulously. ‘And sending them here to fuck up my happy little family? Those bastards!’
‘Must have been, I guess,’ agreed Ella. ‘My team do random checks on the incoming crates, but to be honest it’s a token gesture. So much crap comes off those shuttles — heavy plant equipment, sealed electronics, radioactive material — that we actually can’t check, that it wouldn’t be hard to slip something through. I suspect it’s been going on for ages.’
‘Maybe someone’s synthesizing it on board,’ suggested Liu. His smile had become small and tight. It was well known that Liu was vehemently anti-drugs — he didn’t even drink. Lina wondered if he knew about his ground crew’s moonshine.
‘I can’t believe I didn’t know,’ said Lina quietly. Fader? Eli? Really? This was a man she’d worked with every day for years. How could she not have known? She supposed there had been a few things she hadn’t known about him. She thumped the table, feeling a thrumming, numbing anger rise inside her. She couldn’t tell if that anger was centred on Eli or on herself. ‘Damn it!’ she cried.
‘Lina, chill,’ said Halman harshly, as if she could just be ordered to do so. ‘This ain’t your fault, or mine, or Ella’s, or anyone’s. It’s just one of those things, and at least it makes a little more sense now that we know. That stuff has a bad rep for sending people batshit, and I guess that’s just what happened here.’
‘He claimed to be the emissary,’ said Lina coldly. ‘He said the dragon wanted Marco dead.’
Suddenly, she wanted out of here, wanted her son. She had gone to see him on the way to check in with Hobbes. She’d told him everything that had happened — she saw no point in trying to shield him any more, not after what had already occurred with Eli. He had accepted it quietly enough, but she’d thought she sensed a deep, dark depression inside the boy that had concerned her greatly. Her own blood-covered appearance hadn’t helped matters, she supposed. She knew she should have waited until she’d cleaned herself up, but seeing Marco had been the overriding desire inside her at the time. He was currently waiting in Amy’s office next door, still with Rocko, the hero of the day as far as Lina was concerned. Fionne had also joined them, probably shirking some vital maintenance duty in order to be with her young love. Lina didn’t blame her at all.
‘Yeah, he’s authentically off his rocker, Li, we know that,’ said Halman. ‘I have to admit, I don’t like all this dragon shit. Why a dragon? Why here? Why on my fucking station?’ His shoulders slumped as he turned to Ella. ‘Was there anything in his quarters?’ he asked morosely.
‘Er, I need to talk to you later about that,’ she answered guardedly.
Halman looked a little puzzled, but he said, ‘Okay, yeah.’
Lina wondered what Ella might have found that the rest of them couldn’t hear. Normally, of course, she wouldn’t have been privy to security information, but as she seemed to have been included in some temporary inner circle, she actually felt somewhat offended by Ella’s cagey attitude. She looked at the other woman, but Ella seemed to be pointedly avoiding her gaze.
‘Anyone not clear on what they need to do?’ asked Halman.
‘I guess I need to relocate the whole medical department,’ answered Hobbes, sounding resigned but surprisingly upbeat about this idea.
‘Good. That’s right. Questions? No? Good. Now piss off, you lot,’ Halman said, indicating the door with a sweep of one huge, apish arm. ‘Not you, Officer Kown,’ he added ominously. Obediently, they filed out, mumbling parting pleasantries more out of habit than real feeling, leaving a worried-looking Ella behind. Lina glanced at her as she left, but Ella still wouldn’t look at her.
Chapter Thirty-Four
‘I thought I heard you talking to somebody last night,’ said the man, without looking up from the shuttle’s console.
Carver almost gagged on his water, struggling to hide it with a cough. He wasn’t sure if he’d got away with it or not. ‘Nah, man,’ he said, wiping his chin. ‘Maybe I was talking in my sleep.’ Silence from the man, who still stared intently into the screen of the console, tapping its touch-sensitive surface with one index finger. ‘I’ve been told I do that,’ Carver added. ‘Vivid dreams. You know.’
The man pinch-zoomed on a section of the screen, mirroring the display on the shuttle’s main window. The shuffling debris of the belt vanished behind a magnified view of a tan-coloured planet, slightly blurred. ‘I should think someone with your history may well have some disturbing dreams,’ said the man critically, peering up into the main screen now. There was a shuddering bang as the shuttle’s defensive mass drivers fired at some rock that had strayed too close. The sound reverberated through the walls and floor, fading away in diminishing waves.
You can fucking talk, thought Carver. He glanced towards the chair where the corpse had sat. The body itself was gone now, though blood had stained the floor and lockers around the chair in great spattered fans of dirty brown. Carver had noticed its absence when he’d gone to get the water from the locker, but the man hadn’t mentioned what he might have done with it. Neither had Carver thought it wise to ask. He looked up at the screen. A fuzzy shadow moved across the image, presumably an out-of-focus asteroid.
‘What’s the planet?’ asked Carver, trying to change the subject.
‘Yuwan,’ said the man distantly. ‘Our local gas giant — the nearest planet to us. A Predecessor world. They found the ruins on one of its moons, Safi-366.’ He didn’t sound hostile at all now, but thoughtful and introspective. ‘They certainly seemed to like gas-giant moons,’ he mused. He indicated the vastness of space with a sweep of one hand. ‘Beyond that, outwards: Vagar, an icy little rock. Then Platini system, just under five light years away. In the other direction, towards Soros: Lillias; CET-11; Viking; Pallos; Hantii. They move around, of course, so they’re not strictly lined up like that, but you get the idea. All dead worlds, never colonised or terraformed. The sort of places no species would want.’ He looked round, his eyes distant and dreamy, twinkling with the reflected lights of the console, as if there were fireworks inside his head. Carver felt the sadness of the night before emanating from him still. He practically smelled of defeat. No wonder your dragon is finished with you.