STARLINER by David Drake

“Unlocked it?” Ran said. He shook his head to clear it and found right away that had been a bad idea.

Because of the disorientation it caused, many people refused to use a hypnogogue. Virtually all the knowledge that fitted Ran for his present position came out of one, though. His father had brought home a teaching unit and a university data base of software . . . from Hobilo, loot gathered when Chick Colville served there as a mercenary.

The elder Colville had never touched the hypnogogue, except to demonstrate it to his son. But on the long nights of Bifrost’s winter, the unit had hammered Ran Colville through a template of civilized knowledge.

“That’s right,” Babanguida replied. “I know I’m off duty, but I asked them what they were doing and they told me to stuff it. I, ah, couldn’t follow them through the hatch.”

Balls. Babanguida had chips to every door in the Empress of Earth or Ran was badly mistaken. The rating had quite reasonably figured this was a good problem to pass off.

It was nice to know that Babanguida hadn’t simply ignored the oddity, though. Lots of people would have done just that.

“Right,” Ran said aloud, wishing that he felt all right “How’d they come aboard, do you know?”

“By the main gangway,” Babanguida said. “Cooper was on duty. He says he checked their passes and they were fine, so what’s the big deal. Cooper!”

“And didn’t inform Ms. Holly?” Ran said. He was too fuzzy to have remembered whose shift this was, but Cooper was on Wanda’s watch.

“That’s a negative,” Babanguida agreed. “You know Cooper. He figures any day he doesn’t put his pants on back to front, it’s a win.”

“Roger, I’ll handle it from here,” Ran said. “Over. Bridge, give me a time plan of hatches opening from Corridor Twelve into officers’ country and doors in officers’ country. Starting ten minutes back.”

He closed and rubbed his eyes for a moment That helped a little, but he continued to have flashbacks of still-faced Szgranians dancing while their arms swayed together like the limbs of mating spiders. Ran sighed and got to work again.

The Empress of Earth had visual monitors only in the Third Class spaces. There were times that a full-ship system would have been useful—this was one of them—but neither passengers nor the vessel’s officers would have stood for it. For that matter, records of who went to which cabin with whom were an incitement to blackmail by entrepreneurial crewmen, which wasn’t the sort of thing Trident Starlines needed either.

Ran’s terminal now displayed an alternative. Corridor Twelve was one of those running the full length of the vessel. Going forward from the Embarkation Hall, it passed through First Class and then, through separate locked hatches, gave access to the crew and officer accommodations.

A pair of engineering officers had entered or left their cabins recently, but that was several minutes before the most recent use of the Corridor Twelve hatch. The only cabin opened after that point was Commander Kneale’s, two doors down from Ran’s own.

“Bridge,” Ran asked. “Where’s the commander?”

“Commander Kneale left the ship three hours and seventeen minutes ago,” the AI replied. “He has not as yet returned. I have no information on his present whereabouts.”

“Right,” said Ran. It sure didn’t feel right. “Request Second Officer Holly to meet me in the commander’s suite soonest. I’m headed that way now.”

Ran stood up, wobbled in a flurry of false six-armed memories, and went out the door. He paused to put on his hat.

He thought of taking the pistol in the locked drawer beneath his terminal; but if that was the way the situation had to be solved, Ran Colville wasn’t in any condition to solve it.

The corridor was empty as usual. Trident Starlines didn’t stint their crews. Officers’ cabins on the Empress of Earth were of First Class quality, and the corridor walk were programmed with a holographic reproduction of sea grasses moving beneath a Tblisi lagoon.

Ran would just as soon have had gray paint. He wasn’t afraid of water, exactly, but he caught his breath every time he stepped out of his cabin.

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