Titan's Plague: The Trial by Tom Briggs (story reading .txt) 📕

about it, Pati,” Nancy said when they exited the crowd.

“They won’t stop looking at me.”

“It won’t be for long.” Nancy took the lead with Lani, letting Pati trail a few steps behind. They traversed what turned into a road for support vehicles between the larger space-going vessels. The ceiling was fifty meters above them, except the hangar’s dimensions were box-shape and not half-cylinder like the rest of Karakorum, and there was no sky of Earth projected on the ceiling. It made for a cavernous feel, and she wondered who got the job to do NDT testing outside of this building.

“Right there,” Lani said, pointing to the right.

Pati recognized her mining ship, and the marking 37-C let her know she was correct. She could walk straight to the entry hatch and enter. Instead, she let Lani lead the way, not knowing if she’d mess up some legal issue walking where she shouldn’t.

Lani tapped the code pad next to the hatch, and the door opened in and to the left. Lani walked in, followed by Nancy and Pati. They walked through the tunnel into the common area she’d pulled the plug on.

She was told the twins secured themselves with clothing, as everything that wasn’t tied down was swept out into space. All it got them was a state-sponsored funeral, since they had no other family, only each other. They died like they were born, together.

Pati stepped over to the door leading to her room. Instead of walking in, she leaned her back against the wall next to it. Pati slumped down to the floor and broke down in tears.

She only lied when she told Nancy it didn’t bother her. As bad as they could be, she really liked Jake and Jeff. They had nobody in the world except each other after their parents died. The poor boys were only ten or eleven then, old enough to have it hurt bad, too young to know how to deal with it. The foster parents they were given were no help, and the state they were wards of acted much like the state that was trying to put her in jail now. It’s no wonder they lived a life of crime. Pati wished she could have been better to them. There were probably times when, if she had reached out, or been friendlier, they would have trusted her after what she did to Bruno. They would all three be alive. And, if she didn’t have witnesses to the apparition she saw and talked to her, she’d have character witnesses that Bruno could attack his boss when angry.

Nancy sat down next to Pati and put her arms around her. She let Pati lean her head on her shoulder. Lani walked into what was Bruno’s room.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Nancy asked.

“No, no,” Pati said as she lifted her head and wiped her eyes. “I’m just thinking about how things could have gone differently. The twins never had much of a chance in life, and yes, I regret what I did. This is one of those times when I wish it had been me instead of them.”

Nancy hugged her and pulled her arm from Pati’s front, leaving the other over her shoulders. “I’d be surprised if you didn’t have any remorse. If I remember, with Richard there were a few times you wished you just held back and was quite sorry for what you did. I know this time it’s been about doing what you had to do, it seems to have affected worse though.”

Pati nodded, it wasn’t exactly the same, but Nancy got the idea at least.

“Do you want to do this another day?” Nancy asked.

“No,” Pati said. She got up, and Nancy did the same. They both brushed off Pati’s clothes, and then Pati brushed off the back of Nancy’s business suit. Lani walked back into the room.

“Where do you want to start?” Lani asked.

“Let’s get up to the bridge,” Nancy said. “That’s where the scene of our statement will be.”

Lani nodded and stepped up to the ladder in the center of the room. She climbed four meters into the ceiling. Pati walked over and started up next. The climb felt unusual because her usual practice was to bounce from the floor and use the ladder as a guide as she floated up in zero gravity.

Lani had cleared the landing when Pati climbed through to the bridge. Pati stepped back into what was her command area as Nancy climbed through. She scanned around, and unlike downstairs, it looked exactly as she had left it.

“Lani, could you go back down till I call for you?” Nancy asked. “This is one of those professional moments, and I need to be alone with my client.”

Lani didn’t respond and descended the ladder. Nancy closed the hatch behind her and pulled out a thin device that just fit in her hand. She touched a button on it and then waived for Pati to come closer. “If someone has bugged the area, this will scramble the sound just outside our personal space. We don’t want anyone to hear what you say, even if it would be inadmissible to the JJ.” She held the scanner over her head and then looked around. “Pati, I’d like you to examine the area, and tell me more than what you’ve already told me. When I took your statement, we were just trying to get your version of what happened. This time, I want you to refer to anything you can think of and let the scene help your memory.”

Pati complied. She reviewed landing on the iceberg that day, and how they remotely hooked heat-hoses to the glaciers. They took on their limit for a single iceberg and jumped off to find another. That’s when life-support started going south. Everything happened so fast. So Pati did a slow 360 while Nancy continued to hold the jammer over their heads.

“Nancy, the only difference from my statement I can think of is the apparition. I know you don’t want to bring that into court, but I saw it as plain as I see you now, and it floated right where you’re standing.”

Nancy didn’t lower the jammer. “Okay, tell me what you saw,” she said.

Pati pointed to her command station. “I was standing there when I saw a light reflect against my screen. It was a gold color, and I turned to look. For some reason, I walked to it and stood about there.” Pati pointed halfway between them and the command station. “It addressed me as Pati, so I asked who it was, even though the voice was exactly like Richard’s.”

“What else?”

“Well, it said it was a native of Titan, I think, and it said their people have to have revenge, so it was going to kill me by shutting down the life-support. I asked about my crew, and it said it was regrettable they were involved or something. Then it went away. Bruno obviously believed the thing, because that’s when he tried to kill me.”

Nancy rubbed her chin with the left hand, while her right continued to hold the jammer up. “Well, we went through your struggle with Mr. Redden. And you told us about the twins seeing you at some point. Was there anything else?”

“No, I think I’ve told you everything now, as far as I can remember.”

Nancy brought the jammer down and turned it off. “I have to hold it above us so we can hear each other. Kind of like a cone of silence, except you can’t see the cone.” Nancy tapped on the hatch with her right foot, and the hatch rose up. “Lani, you can come up now,” she said.

Lani climbed the ladder and stood before them. “Anything else you need up here?” she asked.

“No,” Nancy replied. “I think we’re good for now. We’ll need to go through the rest of the ship now, but I don’t expect we’ll need any more private time. You want to lead the way?”

Lani nodded and started back down the ladder. Nancy motioned for Pati to go before her. Pati started down the ladder, having trouble even in one-sixth gravity. When she dropped to the floor, her arms felt like they’d been through a workout.

Nancy dropped to the floor last and turned to Lani. “Okay, Lani, could you give me a tour of this ship? I know Pati could tell me everything, but I’ve been taxing her about her experience, and she could use a break.”

“No problem,” Lani said. “Let’s walk out to the storage tanks, to begin with. They’re the reason for having these ships.”

Nancy let Lani lead the way again. Pati just followed, and absolutely agreed with Nancy: she could use a break.