As Hiro loaded the drive into the terminal in his room, he thought about the captain and Wolfgang challenging each other with their killer instincts. Two wolves among sheep that recognized each other, maybe?
He needed to find someone to confide in; otherwise the mission would die due to lack of trust, not the multiple murders. But if the two people in charge were already murderers, what did that make the others?
The drive had one video on it. It was of Hiro’s own tear-streaked face. He stood alone in the helm. He took a deep breath and then spoke in rapid Japanese.
“If by chance they want to wake me up again, tell them not to. I’m having blackouts. I don’t know who I am anymore. She was badgering me, pushing me, wanting to know everything about me. I think it triggered something—old.” He winced as he stuttered the words. Hiro knew what he meant. He didn’t need to say it. “Now the captain is hurt, IAN is hacked, our mindmap programs are shot. And I can’t remember a lot of the last few weeks. I tried talking to the doctor, but she says it’s just stress and insomnia, and gave me something to sleep deeper. Then I woke up in the garden right where Maria found me a few weeks ago. I don’t remember going there! I was picking herbs. I think I was helping—”
His voice had climbed to a high pitch. He closed his eyes for a moment and then continued, a bit calmer.
“I’m hoping they can clean up my mess with me gone. IAN shut the grav drive down a minute ago before he started eating all the logs. I have to hurry if there’s going to be enough gravity to do what I need to.”
He took a great hiccupy breath. “Something is broken inside me. Maria’s seen it. I’m so tired. I’ve fought it for too long. Don’t wake me up again. Let the broken, branching line of Akihiro Sato end with me. I’m sorry. If I hurt anyone, I’m sorry.”
During this confession, his hands worked at the cable to fashion a noose. Watching this, Hiro found himself telling himself No, don’t do it, even when he had already witnessed the inevitable result of this suicide note.
The camera then shot the glass dome of the helm, and the spinning stars began to slow down. Hiro returned with a screwdriver and his boot. “I need to secure this on an external drive. I can’t trust IAN not to delete this. I’m signing off.”
The video feed went black. The audio continued for another moment, catching a distant scream, well down the hall from the helm.
Hiro sat for some time, motionless on his bed. Then he watched it again. He pulled the drive from his tablet and walked over to the trash chute that went straight to the recycler. He dropped the drive down the chute, listening to it clack against the sides, faster and faster as the heavier gravity on the outer floors of the ship pulled it down with each ricochet.
He took a short shower, then lay down and stared at the ceiling.
That suicide note would just give them the wrong idea.
He hadn’t killed everyone.
He knew he hadn’t.
Life Is Cheap
Joanna had decided to work through the night on the murder time line, but was dismayed to see the captain at the medbay door, watching her.
“What can I do for you, Captain?” Joanna asked as she motioned Katrina inside.
“I wanted to see how you were doing on the time line?” Katrina said.
“You’ll be the first to know when I get it worked out.”
Katrina walked over to her older clone’s bed. “I thought I gave you an order about this.”
“I decided to ignore that order in the interest of the patient,” Joanna said, straightening and rolling toward Katrina.
“That’s mutiny.” Katrina’s voice was cold.
“It’s well within my rights to do so. You have expressed interest in killing my patient, while I think she needs to live a bit longer.”
“Recycling the material to benefit the crew,” Katrina corrected. She sat down in the chair next to the bed as if keeping vigil. She didn’t look away from her own bruised face.
Joanna deposited her tablet on a cart and picked up a notebook, not moving too quickly. Katrina hadn’t attempted to touch the body, not yet, anyway. She gave Joanna an irritated glance when she arrived.
“Paper?” she asked.
“Considering where the last logs ended up, I think it’s safest,” Joanna said. “I’m backing them up verbally, but for now I’m not putting any data into that computer. Does Wolfgang have the rest of the ship under control?”
“As much as we can.”
“Are you all right, Captain?” Joanna asked.
“Absolutely,” Katrina said.
“Have you slept?”
“No.”
“Captain, you know you need to sleep. The new body needs a lot of food and rest. In lieu of food, you should rest for at least a little while,” Joanna said.
“You’re not resting,” Katrina said.
Joanna shrugged. She wasn’t about to tell the captain that she had pressing matters while Katrina didn’t.
“How long do we let her sit in a coma before we get rid of it?”
Joanna noted how Katrina easily switched pronouns, but didn’t mention it. “Things have been too chaotic to make that kind of decision. But I expect she’ll be here for the next week at least. You are not to bother her while she recovers,” she added.
“What are you going to do to keep me out?” Katrina asked. She sounded interested, not challenging.
“I hope you will respect my authority in the medbay. Beyond that, I suppose I’ll have to lock the door. Beyond that, I will talk to Wolfgang.”
She expected Katrina to laugh, but instead she nodded thoughtfully. “That’s a good plan. Still, I could just kill it right now.”
“With me right here?”
Katrina snorted. “Please. I could grab it and be out the door to the recycler before you could turn that chair around.”
Joanna had experienced over two hundred years and several lives, and comments like that still hurt. She supposed they always would. She smoothed the sheet flat below the clone’s restraints. “Why you didn’t do it before now, when you had lots of chances?” Katrina didn’t answer. “All right, then. Go ahead.” Joanna held her breath, wondering if the captain would call her bluff.
“You’re stronger than I thought,” Katrina said and leaned back in her chair, putting her hands behind her head. They sat in silence, and Joanna gradually felt the tension in her chest subside. Katrina had been right: Joanna would never take her in a test of physical strength.
Joanna broke the silence. “Did you ever think it was a mistake, making it so cheap to clone?”
“What?” Katrina said, startled. “Where did that come from?”