“Captain’s Log: After the Praetorian’s ambush, taking three of our ships, we crashed on the planet in the middle of the Praetorian Nebula. We lost most of the crew in the attack. We were able to escape Xaniax-21, take back two destroyers and the Zadriel and return to orbit with the remaining crew: Solan, Brie, Krys, Cadence and Trent. Captain C. Becha, signing off.”

  I turned off the recording and breathed a sigh of relief, though I couldn’t help but wonder who placed the device. With any luck, the tracker latched on to an asteroid for the trackers to chase. I debated on whether to mention it in the log at all but then decided that it could wait until I knew more—or at least, until it was either a problem or been resolved. Right now, it was just a device with no name.

  “Cap?”

  I blinked, snapping out of my train of thought. Brie was looking at me with a concerned frown, her head tilted slightly, the way it does when she’s studying something.

  “Are you alright?”

  I cleared my throat and adjusted myself in the centre seat. “Yes, Brie. I’m fine. I was just thinking.”

  “What about?”

  I sighed. “Thinking about the cargo we’re carrying. The lid was crooked, which meant someone got into the cargo bay. There was a tracking device on it…”

  “Seriously? Was it active? Did you get the serial number?”

  I sighed. I wished I had thought about any of that. “No. I shot it out of the trash compartment into space. It was blinking, so it was definitely transmitting something. I just got rid of it before anyone else decides to pay us a visit.” I thought for a moment, hesitating. “I’m hoping it’ll latch on to an asteroid for them to chase. But…” I frowned, then gasped. “Is our surveillance cameras still operative? Perhaps we can see who planted it.”

  “It should be. We’ve had no reason to deactivate it.”

  “Can you check?”

  Her fingers were already flying across the keyboard, typing the command. The camera footage blinked on to the large screen on the dashboard, stopping the rewind just as the cargo bay door opened. She took a deep breath, crossing her fingers, and hit play.

  The first thought that occurred to me, as I watched the intruder make his way through the room, was that he already knew the password. It was a secure room. Secondly, it also meant a security breach that went further than the cargo being tampered with.

  I forced myself to focus and watched as the figure of a man stopped at the crate. He looked around, lifted the lid and placed the device inside.

  Just as quickly as he came, he left through the same route.

  “That’s it,” she said, disappointed. “Other than he looks about 5 foot two, medium built, wearing dark blue clothes. He doesn’t look at the camera once. It could be anyone.”

  “Not necessarily,” I replied, thoughtfully. I drummed my fingertips against the table deep in thought.

  “Although the footage was only a couple of minutes long, it revealed quiet a lot.”

  “I don’t get it. What did I miss?”

  I pointed to the frozen picture on the screen, repeating my thoughts.

  “Thirdly,” I listed, “He knew exactly where which crate to attach the device on. He didn’t search for it. That means, someone either gave the information to him, or he has cameras inside the cargo bay as well.”

  Brie’s face paled. “Shit. That’s a problem.”

  “No kidding. We need to get to the next station and do a full sweep of the ship. And then, we need to change every password to this ship. We can’t have any more security issues.”

  “How long will that take?” She asked, concerned etching into her voice again.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “Too long,” I replied. “But it has to be done. Which also means that we’ll potentially be late delivering the crate.”

  “Won’t he understand?”

  I shook my head. “Doubtful.”

  She pressed her lips together, and I turned away to head back into my seat. The next closest station was three hours away, on L’andia-9.

  “Wait. Why don’t we see if anyone is available to take a look before we dock? Save us time?”

  “I would, but who do we have spare? It’s just the five of us. No. The ambassador of Tol’an will just have to wait. And if he doesn’t like it, he can put in a complaint like anyone else.”

  She looked uncertain but agreed. It wasn’t like she could overrule me. On the other hand, I wasn’t wrong. There really was not anyone else available to look, let alone a search team.

  I sighed. With any luck, the federation would send in more officers to fill the gaps. Until then, we was on our own.

  “Ok, crew,” I said, clearing my throat. “Set a course for L’andia-9.”

  “Yes sir,” they replied, then tapped in the co-ordinates and waited for my command.

  “Engage.”

  ***

  The flight to L’andia went without too much incident. Though, the crew occasionally glanced in my direction with puzzled looks. I didn’t heed it any attention. I sighed, still ruminating the plan through my head. There was so much that could go wrong. I turned my focus to the wide space in front of me, watching as my crew worked. I named them silently, acknowledging each of them, then paused. Someone was missing.

  “Hey, Brie? Where’s Cadence?”

  Her face paled as she looked around the control room. She wasn’t in the ship.

  “I—I don’t know. She was right there. I swear she got on board… right?”

  She began typing rapidly into the security system looking for her. She wasn’t hard to miss, with her pink pixie hair. Each camera blinked on to the screen, then we saw it. Blood in the cargo bay, and a glimmer of pink hair peaking from behind one of the cargo containers.

  My blood ran cold. I dialled into the main intercom and called out to the medical bay. I prayed someone was in there—one doctor was all I needed.

  “Captain to med bay, Captain to med bay! I need you to get to the cargo bay, section 4B. For goodness' sake, hurry!”

  “What if there’s no one there?”

  I prayed she was wrong. I turned to her, desperate. “Cover me. I’m going to go and take a look.”

  She nodded and gripped the sides of the dashboard. I leapt off my seat and raced out of the control room into the narrow halls. The grey with an orange stripe stretched down the corridor until I reached the far end. The medical bay was on the floor below. I jumped the stairs two at a time before I reached the second floor, and burst through the double doors, turned left into the next hall and into the bottom floor below where the cargo bay was.

  As I reached the cargo bay doors, I weaved my way through the giant steel boxes until I found what I was looking for. At the far end, behind a steel container labelled ‘Spare Parts’, I crouched down to find Cadence laying unconscious on the floor, blood seeping from her head. I checked her pulse, my heart racing. It was there, but thready. I swallowed hard, lifted her into my arms from the floor and carried her to the floor above us. The medical bay’s lights blinked off and on, but I didn’t care. I lowered her on to one of the beds and pulled over the scanner. Next, I turned and scanned the room for life. No one was walking around the room, nor did I hear voices. Were we really out of doctors? I licked my lips, weaving through the beds. Then, I saw him. A doctor. I sucked in a sharp breath, not daring to breathe. I hurried over, checking for his pulse. It was steady and strong. I let out a breath of relief and shook the doctor awake.

  The name on the doctor’s uniform was Yuni. His face was slightly pale, but other than that, I didn’t see any serious injuries. Though, he was sporting a fairly big black eye.

  “Yuni,” I said, shaking his shoulders. He slumped on the floor, unmoving. I sat him up and propped him up against the medical bed. Then, slapped his face with a firm tap.

  “Wake up, doc. Come on man, please wake up.”

  He finally let out a groan. I laughed. It was forced and sounded nervous even to my own ears.

  “Oh thank god.”

  “What happened?” He asked, clutching his head. He pressed a finger to his eye, flinching.

  “Someone knocked you out. We had a security breach in the cargo bay. Though, I’m guessing we had problems here too?”

  He nodded. “Someone took the morphine.”

  I sighed. “A problem for another time. Are you ok?”

  The doctor thought for a moment, then nodded. He stood up, slightly shaky, but otherwise of fine.

  “What’s the damage?”

  I told him about what happened, and that he must have been knocked unconscious during the raid. Then, I gestured towards my officer. “I also found Cadence in the Cargo Bay. Someone did a number on her. I’m guessing she caught someone by surprise whilst they were tagging one of the cargo cases.”

  “Ok. Is she alright?”

  I shrugged. “Her pulse is thready. I brought her straight here. I’m hoping you can help?”

  Yuni dusted himself down and walked over to the bed and checked her vitals. The scanner had already finished checking her vitals.

  “She’ll be fine. I’ll give her some saline and some Prethorine. That should help with the pain.”

  “Thanks, Doc. Do you need me to get you anything?”

  He shook his head, smiling faintly. “I’m alright. I’ll fix her up and let you know how she’s doing when there’s progress.”

  I thanked him again, and made my way back to the command room. Brie was still staring at the camera when I walked in.

  “How is she?”

  I offered her a small, relieved smile. “She’ll recover. And thankfully, we still have a doctor on board. Yuni was unconscious, but alive.”

  “Thank goodness for small miracles,” she muttered.

  I nodded. “Amen.”

  I let the silence stretch before reaching for my audio device and hit record.

  “Captain’s Log…”