Very serious faces. Fully cognizant of the danger. Fully cognizant of the fact they had trouble among themselves in ways no one had reckoned.
“Nobody got hurt,” he said. “It was their good luck we didn’t have an emergency. But there’s more to it than that. A keepsake disappeared, something personal that can’t be replaced. That’s why Fletcher’s upset. Now I’ve talked to the junior-juniors. And I’m going to suggest that if possibly—possibly—this was just extremely bad judgment, and somehow the object got misplaced—even damaged—it would be a good idea if it turned up in my quarters. Or Fletcher’s. I’m going to hope on my faith in this crew that this event will happen within the hour. I’m going to give this crew half an hour off-duty and I’m going to go back to the bridge in the hope that this will in fact happen and we can find a way to patch what’s happened. I’m not going to answer any questions. If one of you knows what I’m talking about and can solve the problem expeditiously I would be personally grateful. If one of you wants to talk about it, you can page me. If anyone has anything to add to the account, I’ll listen right now.”
There was absolute quiet. Bucklin and Lyra and Wayne looked at him. Sue looked to Connor, and Chad looked at her, and for a moment he thought someone was going to say something.
But heads shook in denial, Chad’s, Sue’s, and the ones who had looked to that silent exchange looked back at him.
No answers. There was still hope, however, of a miraculous appearance.
“That’s all, then,” he said, and left and went to the lift, rode it up to A deck in a mood that drew glances from senior crew he passed on his way to the bridge.
“How’s it going?” he asked when he took his seat at the console. Trent, next over, said, “No change.”
He wished he could say that about the junior crew.
Chapter 18
No missing artifact turned up in his cabin. JR went down to A deck, to his own quarters, hoping and fearing… and fears scored. Hope got nothing. The missing item wasn’t on his bed, not on the sink.
He began to get angry, and to ask himself who in his command would be afraid to come to him. Scared had to describe the perpetrator by now.
Except if someone from outside the ship had gotten past all their security… and in that case why target Fletcher’s room? The lifts all required a key when the ring was locked down, a key that had to be gotten from the duty officer, so the bridge couldn’t be reached. The operations center would be a target, but that had been manned around the clock, and nothing else was missing in the whole ship.
He began to entertain again the notion that Fletcher might be a very good actor, even that his exemplary behavior during the liberty was a set-up. There was no one in the crew he wanted to suspect. That did leave Fletcher, maneuvering everything, first to show the item to Jeremy and then to arrange to have it missing and himself the wronged party.
Why? was the next question. Some notion of giving the ship hell?
Some ploy to get himself shipped back to Pell with apologies? It was the first thing Fletcher had asked for.
Some bogused-up stick out of materials Fletcher could have gotten onplanet very easily, carvings Fletcher could have done, the whole thing his ticket to Pell if he could con a gullible junior-junior into serving as witness and setting the whole crew at odds with each other.
He sat alone in A deck rec and enjoyed a cup of coffee that didn’t entail going down to the mess hall where Fletcher was working, because the thoughts that were beginning to replay in his brain kept pointing to Fletcher as the origin of the problem.
His pocket-com had, however, messages. A lot of messages. From Toby:
I didn’t hear anything about it. It seems to me the junior-juniors might be playing a prank, and it got out of hand.
From Ashley: I didn’t hear anything. I assure you I would tell you if I had .
Nike came quietly up to him, and settled into the seat opposite his at the table.
“I don’t know who particularly had it in for Fletcher, but if you could kind of tell us what’s missing maybe we could look for it, in case, you know, somebody’s kind of scared to come forward?”
“In the whole ship? We’re not talking about something the size of a shipping cannister.”
“So what is it?” Nike said. “If it was in Fletcher’s cabin it was smaller than a shipping can. But how big could it be? Like a piece of jewelry?”
“Bigger.” He was down to games with people who’d be his life and death reliance when they replaced senior crew. “Tomorrow,” he said, hoping that the long hours of mainnight would weigh on someone’s conscience. “Tomorrow I might be more specific.”
Nike was the sort who’d badger after an answer. But she didn’t. She got up quietly and left. He saw her at the edge of the area talking to Bucklin, and saw Bucklin shake his head
Bucklin came to him after that, sat down in the seat Nike had vacated and leaned crossed arms on the table.
“This,” Bucklin said, “is poisonous. Jamie, let me tell them at least what we’re trying to find.”
“I’m not sure what we’re trying to find. I’m not sure I trust Fletcher.”
“You think he’s putting one over on us? Why?”
“To get back to Pell! I don’t know.”
“Possible,” Bucklin said. “But it’s also possible Vince—or Linda—”
“Or Sue. Or Connor, or Chad. Maybe we should just post armed guard. You and I stand in the corridor and shoot the first one that stirs toward another cabin.”
Bucklin’s shoulders slumped. “I’d rather think it was Fletcher.”
“So would I. That’s why I distrust my own wishes. Either he’s the best liar in lightyears about or he’s suffered an extreme injustice, and I don’t know which. I don’t know whether he’s laughing at us or whether someone in this crew has completely lost his senses.”
“I think we ought to pull a search.”
“For an object you could fit in a duffle and over an entire ship that’s been opened up to crew at dock.”
“If someone hid it during dock you can eliminate half the ring.”
“But not the entire damn hold.”
“Possible. But you’d have to suit to go in the hold. In the ring skin you don’t have to. If Fletcher hid it, it’d be in places Fletcher knows, right near the galley. If somebody else did it, that still means they’d play hob getting to half the ring during dock, and they’d probably not want to stay long or climb high to do it. I say we search the parts of the ring skin that are convenient during dock, and search in the storage lockers and the office near the galley stores first of all. That’s where Fletcher was hazed. That could be the place somebody might put it.”
It made sense. “But we’ve got Champlain out there.”
“I’d say if we’re going to find that thing we look now , while we’re still in Mariner space. If we wait till the deep dark, damn sure it’s going to be more dangerous to go larking about in the ring. But if we don’t do something to find it, we’ve got to live with that, too.—And maybe—maybe somehow it’ll materialize so we can find it. It’s a lot easier for it to turn up out there, you know, just kind of—by happenstance.”
“What’s the matter with walking in and laying it on my bunk?”
“Your bunk is in your cabin, and your door is visible up and down the corridor where we have cameras.”
“What do they think? I’d say go in and do it anonymously and then sit on the bridge and use the cameras?”
“I think everybody thinks this is a real serious issue that reflects pretty badly on whoever did it, and maybe right now somebody is real scared that he’s completely lost your trust. I think whoever did it had rather die than have it known.”
He looked up at Bucklin. “You don’t know who that someone is, do you?”