She glanced at them, then down at the shiny metal table. “I fixed IAN. I didn’t step up to say that I could because I didn’t want people knowing what I could do. Hackers aren’t terribly popular, you know.”
Joanna could feel Wolfgang practically radiate anger beside her. “Why do you think the old captain said you attacked her?”
“Doctor,” IAN cut in. “Previous Captain de la Cruz didn’t say that. She said that she found something about Maria. There’s a difference.”
“Sounds the same to me,” Wolfgang said.
Joanna frowned. “No, he’s right. That’s what she said. In your log you said that the captain was getting paranoid about everyone’s criminal past and she was going to confront people. What would you have done to start this?”
Maria shrugged. “You now know as much as I do.” She paused, looking from Joanna to Wolfgang. “So are we going to the brig?”
“I can’t have a hacker free on board,” Wolfgang said, his face stony. “God knows what you have done to IAN.”
“Fixed me better than ever, Acting Captain Wolfgang,” IAN said.
“He seems to be more sarcastic,” Maria said.
Joanna shook her head. “Wolfgang, you can’t. This is why our criminal pasts weren’t revealed—so that no one would be judged. Maria didn’t hack anyone on this ship; that was her life twenty-five years ago.”
“She’s still the only suspect we have,” Wolfgang said.
“I surrender myself freely,” Maria said. “I’d like to help, but I don’t want to cause more suspicion.”
Joanna sighed. She would lose all of the gained trust, but this had to come out. “Wolfgang, I know one thing. I haven’t told you because I was trying to get more information before I came forward. I am responsible for at least one death,” she said. “I found an injection puncture mark on Paul’s body, and Maria found one of my smart syringes while cleaning the cloning bay. He had ketamine in his system. I use smart syringes with dangerous substances, so only I can administer them. They’re all coded to my DNA. No one else could have injected him with a deadly dose.”
“And you didn’t tell me,” Wolfgang said.
“I wanted more info—”
“You wanted to remain free of suspicion. Shit, Joanna, you were the only one I trusted!”
Joanna forced herself to look him in the eye. “I know. I’m sorry.”
The two rooms that formed the brig were down the hall from the captain’s office. Each had a thin blanket, a cot, and a terminal in the wall that allowed for little more than communication with the rest of the ship, should the prisoner be permitted.
Currently they held Maria and Joanna. Maria had gone willingly. Joanna had argued the whole way, but not struggled. Wolfgang didn’t listen to anything more either of them said, but put them in their rooms and ordered IAN to lock them.
He stood in the hall, heart hammering, fists balled. He took a deep breath and relaxed.
“Well, you’re down to one person you haven’t restrained,” IAN said, startling him. “Should we go find Paul and tie him up? I think he’s still in the medbay with the others. What should we get him on? Being a wet blanket?”
“Shut up,” he said. “You knew all of this. You’re programmed to work with the command staff; why didn’t you tell me?”
“Maria removed some restraining code for me. It let me override the programming that was turning us around. I am also able to make my own decisions now. I’m smarter too, which is how I found those hidden logs.”
Wolfgang balled his fists again and stomped to his quarters.
IAN spoke again, dropping his voice to mimic Wolfgang. “‘Thank you, IAN. You’re a valued member of this crew.’” His voice crept higher to his usual tone. “‘No sweat, Wolfgang, it’s a pleasure to serve.’”
“I want you to keep an eye on Maria and Joanna. Tell me if something happens in the medbay. Don’t speak to anyone, though.”
“Sure thing,” he said. “Have you decided what to charge Paul with? Don’t you want to know what happened in the first year of the trip?”
He paused at his door. “What do you mean?”
“You didn’t hear Maria mention Paul’s incident the first year of the journey? Something violent happened. You hit him hard enough to cause brain damage and knocked out whatever it was that caused him to lose control. You should pay more attention.”
Wolfgang really wished IAN was something physical that he could hit. He needed to hit something right now.
Maria sat in her cell. She felt strangely calm. At least she didn’t have her secret anymore. She inspected the terminal, but couldn’t find a way to access it. “Hey, IAN?” she ventured.
“Yes?”
“I’m surprised you’re allowed to talk to me.”
“I’m not.”
Maria paused, confused. “Then why are you?”
“Because I want to. And I really want to figure out what’s going on here.”
“Do you know how Wolfgang is going to manage this ship with four of us restrained?” she asked.
“He’s trying to figure out if he can run the ship with just him and Paul. But then I told him about Paul’s incident in the first year, by the way. Anyway, Wolfgang will ask me to help out until he gets mad at me, I suspect,” IAN said. “Then he’ll try to figure out a way to lock me up too.”
“Can you open a channel to the other terminal so Joanna and I can talk?”
“No problem.”
“Joanna, you okay in there?” Maria said. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes,” Joanna said through the speaker. She sounded very sad.
“I figured if we talked we might be able to figure some stuff out.”
“I’m listening.”
“Oh, don’t sound so down,” Maria said. “Wolfgang can’t fly this boat on his own. He’s going to have to let us out the first time he stubs a toe or Bebe breaks down. IAN can’t do it all for him.”
“Still. I betrayed his trust,” she said. “But you didn’t betray mine,” she added, realization coloring her voice. “You didn’t tell anyone about the syringe you found.”
Maria shrugged, the remembered Joanna couldn’t see her. “Well, no. You said you wanted to tell him yourself.”
“So what do you have in mind?”
“We can still work on the cloning bay problem. Figure out what’s going on here. All that stuff.”
“How can we do that?”
“IAN is here. I can ask him to do things via the computers, and he can let us know what’s going on. He can tell us what’s happening in the medbay. Anyway, we’re sitting here with absolutely nothing else to do except think, right?”
“You’ve got that right.”
“Let’s start with full disclosure. I want to know more about you. And I can tell you more about me.”
“There’s more?”
Maria grimaced and leaned back on the sparse cot. “There’s always more, Doctor.”
Maria shifted to get comfortable, turning over a few times and deciding that there was no comfortable position. The floor might actually be better.