"What!" David straightened. They had over five hundred kilos of blasting explosive, for use on both the comet and the asteroid. "Are you certain?" he paused. "I'm sorry, Ron, of course you are. Any ideas?"
Ron shrugged. "Only the obvious; search the ship. We may have a saboteur aboard."
David nodded. "All right, Ron. I'll take it from here."
The scarred face crinkled into a brilliant smile. "Good luck!" He nodded and backed down the ladder.
David called Yuri and Raoul up to the flight deck, and told them the situation. Yuri's face became even more dour and threatening. Raoul's frowned in concentration. After a moment he said, "Well, if I had to pick one, I'd have only one suspect."
David smiled weakly. "C'mon, Raoul, Yuri's not that bad tempered!" Raoul gave him the quick, weak smile the joke deserved. David sighed. "Okay, Raoul, who's your choice?"
The chubby man shrugged. "I'd say Yoshi. Ron is the one that reported it, you're active in investigating it, and Yuri . . . no. Not Yuri. That leaves Dolf, Yoshi, and me. Dolf is almost religious in his devotion to this project. If you thought it was me, I wouldn't be here. That leaves Yoshi. He's a loner, unsociable and uncommunicative. I'd say the first place to check is that 'nest' of his, in the cargo bay."
Yuri jerked a nod and started for the ladder. "Hold it, Yuri," said David. "Ron said he's got two kilos of explosive. That's enough to turn us and this ship into drifting dust, if he set it off in the right spot. And we don't know how it's rigged, if it is. He may have a remote trigger. We have to get to it without him knowing about it.
"Here's what I suggest," he continued. "You and Raoul go below. I didn't see Yoshi there, so he's probably in his 'nest'. We've got to lure him away from there and into the passenger compartment without creating suspicion."
Yuri nodded. "I suspect a computer problem."
Raoul brightened. "Now that you mention it, I've been having some problems with the tablet interface recently."
David nodded. "Good I suggest you tell Yoshi immediately. I have an errand in the cargo bay, myself. Yuri, I'm sure we can count on you to make sure I'm not disturbed?"
Yuri's dour face was stone. He nodded. "And I will make certain his hands do not go near a pocket."
David's eyebrows rose. "An excellent thought. Raoul, why don't you let me go into the cargo bay first? You can come in after a minute or so."
David entered the cargo bay with his tablet in his hand and a puzzled expression, as though he was planning to check on something. He stayed well clear of the explosives storage locker, and began poking around the foam-encased ion motors intended for use on the comet and asteroid.
After a minute, Raoul came in, obviously looking for Yoshi, who was ensconced as usual in his padded 'nest'. Raoul spoke to him for a moment, and proffered his tablet. Yoshi inspected it carefully, then handed it back and began extricating himself from the maze of crates that formed the walls of his 'nest'. He and Raoul went into the passenger compartment.
As soon as the hatch closed, David hurried to Yoshi's 'nest', and began searching. It took him about ten minutes to find it. Yoshi had loosened a corner of a crate and dug out enough foam plastic packing to accommodate the explosive.
The four blocks were neatly arranged in a cube, with a timing device on the top. David recognized it as a timing device used to set delay on rocket engines. With a huge sigh of relief, he verified that the timer had not been set, and there was no apparent remote control. He removed the detonator and the trigger, and returned the explosive to its locker. Then he went forward to the passenger compartment. Yoshi was engrossed in a tablet; apparently, he was trying to diagnose Raoul's problem. David nodded to Yuri, who returned his nod and tapped Yoshi on the shoulder.
"Yoshi," he said quietly, "I must speak with you."
The little man frowned. "What is it? I'm quite busy."
"I'm afraid it's quite important. We have discovered that some explosive is missing."
Yoshi's eyes darted to the hatch, saw David standing in front of it. "There's no cause for worry, though, Yoshi. I found it."
Panic surged in Yoshi's eyes, and he tried to surge to his feet. But Yuri was on him in an instant, locking his arms behind him. Raoul handed Yuri a short length of cord, and Yuri bound Yoshi's wrists.
David looked at the man, whose attitude was suddenly a mixture of desperation and despair.
"But you must see," Yoshi said excitedly. "We have to do it! We cannot let man do it again! We have polluted our world with nuclear energy and radiation. We cannot allow the pollution to be spread into space as well! That abomination tucked in the middle of the ion engines on our stern must be destroyed!"
David shook his head. "Even if it destroys our ship and ourselves as well?"
"Of course! We do not matter. Man must not be permitted to pollute the purity of space with his obscene radioactives!"
David looked at Yuri and shrugged. "The 'purity' of space."
Yuri looked disgusted. "Have you been in orbit recently? The place is a junkyard. And I suspect a lot of the older stuff is radioactive."
By now, the entire crew was crowded into the tiny passenger compartment, and everyone was talking at once. Yuri rolled his eyes, and pulled Yoshi over to his acceleration couch. He put the slight Japanese into the couch, and snapped the safety belts into place. With his hands bound behind him, Yoshi was helpless.
David waved for silence. He explained what had happened, stressing that the bomb had been disassembled. By the time he finished; Yoshi was receiving some very black looks from his shipmates.
"The big problem now," he continued, "is what to do with Yoshi. We have no place to lock him up, and we certainly can't just release him.
"Put him out the airlock," said Ron, "with or without a suit. It won't matter either way. He tried to kill us!"
David frowned. "And who's to be the executioner? Any volunteers?" The silence was deafening. "That's what I thought," he continued. "None of us are killers."
Dolf spoke up. "He's safe enough where he is, for the moment. I suggest we consult Frank. Of course, that means the rest of the planet hears about it as well. We should get a lot of input!"
There was much more discussion, of course, but no one had a better idea.
"Good lord," Frank said. "How good is your evidence?"
"Conclusive," Dolf replied. "The Commander found the bomb and defused and disassembled it. Yoshi doesn't deny it; he's trying to talk the rest of us into finishing the job."
"Why?" Frank replied in a puzzled tone. "What possible reason could he have?"
Dolf thought hard. The reactor was the only secret they had. But it was also the very core of the reason for Yoshi's act. He looked at David, who sighed deeply, and then shrugged. So much for their secret.
"To prevent man from polluting the cosmos, he says"
"Polluting it with what?" Frank's voice was still puzzled, but there was no way to tell him without telling the rest of the world, and no code words that wouldn't be obvious.
"Nuclear energy and radioactives," Dolf replied in a level tone. He might as easily have been saying, "marigolds and daffodils." He wished that were what he was saying.
Silence dragged. Frank was certainly aware that a very large cat had been let out of the bag.
Finally his voice came, dully. "I see. Well, we'll put out a storm watch, and batten down all the hatches. I expect a very heavy storm over the next few days.
"As for what to do with Yoshi, I'm afraid I can't be much help right now. But I'll bet we get lots of advice very soon. For the moment, I'd check and make sure Raoul is well equipped with sedatives."
They signed off a few moments later. No one seemed to have much to talk about.
***
Frank's storm hit within hours. Suddenly every newscaster on the planet was reporting that Man's Hope was a nuclear ship.
Talking heads interviewed each other. "Experts" were unearthed and interviewed, and the wilder their views, the better. The Man's Hope website was down for several hours due to sheer volume of traffic.