Eric Olafson, Midshipman 42

Part 42: ERIC

Elfi did not fall, Krabbel caught her.

“Wetmouth check her out! Hans raise alarm.” I yelled and Har-Hi and I were almost at the same time next to the door leading into our small hygiene facility. Lacking any other weapon I pulled my 45 and Har Hi produced a long knife.

Wetmouth said. “She was stung by something. Circuit I need your nanites.”

Hans was speaking to the Computronic reporting medical emergency and potential intruder alert.

Har-Hi saw it first and pointed it out to me with a stare and a raised eyebrow. It was something small and almost transparent that retreated into the drain. Har-Hi dashed past me and stabbed his long thin blade down the drain and with a flick of his wrist splatted a thin underarm long, slithering thing of a watery jelly like consistence against the wall. It was a slug or snake like creature with almost completely transparent gelatin like body and small visible organs inside.

Seeing Har-Hi dealing with the creature I went back to the dorm to see after Elfi to see Medics had arrived taking Elfi away. Wetmouth nodded. “She’s going to make it.”

Marines arrived as well and Har-Hi came out the bath room with a laundry bag, and it was moving.

Lt. Merkus was there a heartbeat later and he ordered everyone to be quiet and then me to give a report. After I finished, Har-Hi handed him the bag. “We found this in the drain, Sir. I think it is a Bonglee.”

Merkus gasped. “How could that be? The pipes are Mini Bot inspected and lead to the break down recyclers. There hasn’t been a Bonglee incident in decades.”

I actually snapped at him. “The same way Spindlars commit suicide.”

Shaka pointed at the bathroom. “You are telling us that has happened before, Sir? Taking a shower aboard the Devi is not safe? What are those things?”

Merkus said. “I know you are all upset, especially since one of your comrades got hurt and I will overlook what has been said, but from now on you all will act like Midshipmen and we will get to the bottom of this.”

Through the open door I saw Clusen; behind him among other midshipmen of course Suppor and I said. “Yes Sir, we will act like Midshipmen and if we find that someone had a hand in this, I will challenge this person to a duel and make sure this someone will never again harm anyone.”

I said that looking past Merkus and straight at Clusen.

Before he or anyone else could respond, someone out in the Corridor yelled.” Attention, Captain on deck!”

Everyone stood in attention as Captain Harris, his usually meticulous combed silver hair in a state of disarray, most likely he had been sleeping as the news reached him. In this entire almost chaotic situation his sudden appearance had a calming effect on everyone. He was the Captain of the biggest ship in the fleet and yet he came down personally and my already high opinion of him raised another notch.

Right behind him, running the Ship’s Chief of Security and he stopped only a few steps behind the Captain who looked slowly around and then at the bag, one of the Marines held.

It was dead quiet and then the Captain said to the Chief. “I want every man, every robot and every Nanite we got and have every inch of piping and conduit examined. You personally assured me that all the Bonglee had been found and terminated.”

“Of course Sir. It will be done right away but let me state Sir and on my honor. This Bonglee must have come from somewhere else. The incident with the Shaiman Dissident is over eight years ago. We scanned and inspected everything and been to space dock for a level One inspection twice and that includes a complete decontamination, Sir. Besides Bonglee do not live that long.”

The Captain nodded and looked at us. “I also do not believe lightning strikes twice, I want to know why a promising and good Midshipman commits suicide and I want to know how a Bonglee ends up stinging another.”

When Elfi came back the next day there was a lot of hugging and not many dry eyes and she assured us she was fine. We all were certain it was not an accident but a deliberate attempt to kill one of us. Elfi even knew the motif. “The Captain will select two Midshipmen of the best team and they are to accompany the Captains party and go to the Diamond Ball. It is the most prestigious and most formal event in the entire Galaxy.”

Wetty snapped her fingers. “Ever since Merkus is our Head Instructor the scoring is fair. The Devastator Knights were at the fourth place since yesterday, but now that the Yellow team is incomplete they are again on the third spot and if one of us would be out, they would compete with the Blue team for the first spot, but one of them will leave the ship, due to a family emergency.”

I sat on our small table and said. “I know Clusen and Suppor are mad as hell ever since we took first place, but why would they risk all this to participate at some ball? With the Yellow team out of the way they could have waited and take one of us out later don’t make it so obvious.”

Elfi said. “Because I think it has to do with Clusen and Suppor being of noble houses on their home worlds. They are of families that lost much influence and prestige, it would be an enormous boost to their causes if they can rub shoulders with the influential and mighty houses and seen doing it.”

Circuit coming out of the bath room said. “I installed a few things to assure nothing will ever come through sinks or vents again.” Then he put down his small tool box and said. “I don’t understand this noble business. No offense Princess but what influence do they have on the Union?”

Elfi who had been hugged by Krabbel untangled herself from his legs completely said. “No offense taken, Chrome dome.” Then she sat down as well. “The Union allows for all kinds of governments. Terrans are a Republic; the Blue are ruled by a Tribune. The Ult have completely done away with local governments and use Union Law and consider the Assembly their government. The Klack are ruled by a strict monarchy. The Pan Saran still have an emperor, who is elected by their Senate, but once in power he has dictatorial authority. We, the Saran Empire are ruled by queens for over 12,000 years. My own dynasty or family rules uninterrupted for 1600 years, there are other member planets and smaller empires with Kings, Queens, Emperors and nobles.” She smiled and made an excusing gesture. “Nobles are a peculiar bunch, folks so arrogant that make the Kermac look like amateurs, men and women more concerned about the line of their dynasty than their own lives or anything else. Rigid rules of dusty traditions that make Eric’s book of traditions advanced and modern!”

She sighed. “It is a mindset and a way of looking at the universe. It was poured and pounded into me ever since I was born and this is the reason...” She interrupted herself with a shrug and a sigh. “Anyway, all the nobles of the Union, once held a council long ago, just to decide who is the most noble of them all and fashionb a strict order. It was decided that the Klack Queen is the most royal and most noble of them all, followed by my mother and so forth and the Council of Nobles has a very small voice in the Assembly, but when it comes to things Nobles find important they usually vote together. In the greater scheme of all things Union nobility means little, but within the member societies it is a different story.”

Har-Hi who polished one of his knifes with a piece of silk sighed. “Sounds a lot like Dai Clans.”

Elfi nodded.”Not very surprising, that council of nobles is discussing just how noble your father is, as we speak.”

Wetmouth who sat on her bed with her legs tugged underneath her and an old fashioned paper book on her lap said. “The Concept of monarchy as a form of state is very old and to many less complicated then democracy and such. There was a study done by the University of Bristol and they found that almost all citizens living under Monarchies are usually very content and in general have a high affinity to their respective rulers.”

Krabbel scratched his belly with one of his legs. “Makes me wonder why the Union has never decided to pick a king or an Emperor then.”

“It’s in the Union Constitution,” Elfi answered looking at our eight legged friend,” we all learned that in Union School, but there have been attempts by some political parties to change that.They never got past the five percent hurdle of Union votes to even get it on a Discussion Docket. The Union works fine exactly as it is. But Admiral Stahl and that super rich guy Rex Schwartz would be serious contenders.Not to mention the Narth Supreme, Mothermachine or the Klack queen.”

“Damn, there go my plans of becoming the first eight legged King of the Galaxy.” Krabbel sighed in a theatrical fashion.

Shaka who was always the quietest among us laughed. “And your first decree would be: ice cream for the king only and everyone else gets Nuflug flies.”

“If I ever become King of the Galaxy, you be my First Minister, You know!”

We all laughed and Elfi said. “Well to conclude this subject, for Clusen and Suppor it could be important enough to kill to secure a place.”

I said. “I just wonder what takes this investigation so long. The Security Chief of the Devi must be one of the best or he would not be in that position.”

Wetmouth looked up from her book. “Clusen is aboard and he is most certainly not the best Officer. This is a big ship with lots of personnel. I expected Clusen to be demoted and gone after that Intruder scenario, he only lost the chief instructor job. It would not surprise me to find a secret society or two aboard and perhaps even some associated with the Worm.”

That was something I did not want to believe. Not on the Devi. Not directly under the nose of the Old Man, but I knew Wetmouth could be right. I had met two less than perfect Officers right at the start when I came aboard.

Hans said. “There are 264,000 people from the navy plus 80,000 Marines. While this sounds like a lot, you could give everyone spacious super luxury quarters complete with a swimming pool, on just one deck and you would hardly run into anyone. The ship could hold millions, there are Ghost decks completely empty, only patrolled by a few robots and there are the of course the mysterious X decks without any known IST or drop shaft connection. The possibility that the slime thing in the drain really was a coincidence is not very likely but not impossible. Eric this ship holds about as many mysteries and secrets as the space we fly through.”

What my friends said made sense and sounded true. Still I wanted to believe that Captain Harris and Stahl knew all the secrets and the Devi was a shining beacon of all that was awesome about the fleet. I also knew that what I wanted to believe was most certainly not the reality of things.

I slapped my flat hand on the table. “Mystery decks or not, I still have no doubt the suicide and the Bonglee attack are connected to a much closer source and we need to be very alert.”

“Can someone tell me what a Bonglee actually is?” Wanted Shaka to know.

Everyone automatically looked to Wetty. “No one knows for sure were Bonglee originated, but almost all spacefaring societies know about them. They are silicone copper based sluglike life forms able to live and thrive in nearly any environment with a temperature above 10 degrees. Bonglee sustain live by digesting, a variety of minerals and light metals such as aluminum, copper and the like. They have no gender and reproduce by separating an active cell sack every eight to twelve month. The more food or digestible materials they have the more often they reproduce.

If nourishment becomes scare they turn cannibalistic and attack anything that moves including and especially their own kind, their poison is lethal to 76 % of all known life forms. Bonglee are one of many life forms of the space ship vermin category, virtually unknown aboard Union ships, due to strict decontamination procedures, but wide spread on less maintained private owned ships. Bonglee can be legally traded by anyone holding a XLT-4 license.”

“Who would want to buy something like that?” Shaka shuddered.

“They are often held as pets by Shaill and considered a delicacy by 17 known species of which seven are Union Members.”

Har Hi leaned forward. “Modern Union ships have no hiding places for vermin. There are strict hygiene rules for military and civilian ships alike. Modern ships are scanned and decontaminated anyway on a regular basis, but the Devi or for example big old Dai Mothers have many nooks, crawl spaces and places no one looked at for decades.”

I leaned back, shaking my head. “Here I am thinking I had become a decent spacer, and no longer being wet behind my ears and it turns out I am still the same dirt side Space Noob I have always been, knowing next to nothing.”

They laughed and I did too, but not as much. I realized, that even know well into the third year I was not reaching the end of my education.I had not even begun to scratch the surface so it seemed.

Part 43 »