Finally they were done, the engineers and their working parties, and as the pressure came up in the damaged sector, and the little leaks whistled until they were patched, Sassinak could see that the ship itself was sound. It needed time in the refitting yards, but it was sound. Marine troops moved back into their quarters when the pressure stabilized, to the great relief of the Fleet crew who’d been double-bunking, and not liking it. Seven days, not three or four or five, but it was done, and they were back to normal.
Currald was out of sick bay, just barely in time to move his troops back into their own territory. Sassinak had visited him daily once he regained consciousness, but he’d been too sick for much talk. He’d lost nearly ten kilos, and looked haggard.
She was in the gym, working out with Gelory in unarmed combat, when Currald came in for the first time. His eyes widened when he saw the shiny pink streak across her shoulder.
“When did that -?”
“One of the pirates nearly got me - the five that got up to Main.” She answered without pausing, dodging one of Gelory’s standing kicks, and throwing a punch she blocked easily.
“I didn’t know you’d been hurt.” His expression flickered through surprise, concern, and settled into his normal impassivity. Sassinak hand-signed Gelory to break for a moment.
“It wasn’t bad,” she said. “Are you supposed to be working out yet?”
He reddened. “I’m supposed to be taking it easy, but you know the problem - “
“Yeah, your calcium shifts too readily in low-grav. I could have Engineering rig your quarters for high-grav…”
His brows raised; Sassinak gave herself a point for having gotten through his mask again. “You’d do that? It takes power, and we’re on stealth - “
“I’d do that rather than have you blow an artery working out here before you’re ready. I know you’re tough. Major, but poisoning doesn’t favor your kind of strength.”
“They said I could use the treadmill, but not the weight harness yet.” That was an admission; the tread-mill wasn’t even in the gym proper. Currald gave her the most human look she’d had yet, and finally grinned. “I guess you aren’t going to think I’m a weakling even when I look like one…”
“Weaklings don’t survive that kind of poisoning, and weaklings aren’t majors in the marines.” She delivered that crisply, almost barked it, and was glad to see the respectful glint in his eye. “Now - if you and Med think that a high-grav environment would help you get back to normal, tell me. We can’t take the power to do more than your quarters, without risking exposure, but we can do that much. I have no idea if that’s enough to do any good. In the meantime, I’d appreciate it if you’d follow Med’s advice - you don’t want them telling you how to handle troops, and they know a bit more about poisoning than either of us.”
“Yes, captain,” he said. This time with neither resentment, defensiveness, nor guilt.
“I’ll expect you for the staff conference at 1500,” Sassinak went on. “Now, I’ve got another fifteen minutes of Gelory’s expertise to absorb.”
“May I watch?”
“If you want to see your captain dumped on the gym floor a dozen times, certainly.” She nodded to Gelory, who instantly attacked, a move so fast she was sure it must have been half shapechange. Something that felt almost boneless at first stiffened into a leg over which she was flipped - but she coiled in midair, managed to hang onto a wrist, and flipped Gelory in her turn. But this was the only change that Gelory pulled on her for the rest of the session. Instead they sparred as near-equals, and she hit the floor only once. She could not ask, in front of Currald, but suspected the Weft of making her look good in front of the heavyworlder.
Staff meeting that day found almost the same group in her office as on the day of the poisoning. Sassinak noted with amusement that suddenly no one went near the coffee service - although until Currald’s return, the coffee fiends had been drinking at their normal rate.
“I’m fairly sure this coffee is safe,” she said, and watched their faces as they realized their unconscious behaviors. When everyone was settled, and had taken the first cautious sips, she brought Currald up to date, outlining the repairs, the few changes necessary for the marines on Troop Deck, and the discreet hunt for the poisoner. The chief medical officer had already told him the poison was from Diplo, she knew, and she outlined what they had discovered since.
“It’s obvious that any saboteur, as we discussed before, would want to foment trouble between factions. My first thought was that having a heavyworld poison pointed to someone who wanted to put heavyworlders in a bind, and knew that I had a reputation for trusting them. But we had to take a look at the possibility that a heavyworlder had, in fact, done the poisoning. It had to be someone with access to the galleys - preferably both, although it’s just barely possible that some of the coffee from Main made it down to Troop Deck. Since we were serving all over the ship, it’s hard to trace the source of everyone’s drink… particularly if one or more of the stewards was involved.”
“You no longer believe that the intruders poisoned open canisters?”
“No. There’d have been no reason for them to do so: they thought they were taking the ship. They’d have used our supplies. And remember, we have that other sabotage to consider, the missile.”
“Have you figured it out, captain?”
“No. Frankly, Major, I wanted you well before we went further. I do have a list of suspects… and one of them is a young woman from an ambiguous background.” She paused; no one said anything, and Sassinak went on. “She was a medical evacuee from Diplo - an unadapted infant who did not respond to treatment. Reared on Palun - “
“That’s an intermediate world,” said Currald slowly. Sassinak nodded. “Right. She lived there until she was thirteen, with a heavyworlder family related to her birth family. Applied for light-G transfer on her own, as soon as she could, and joined Fleet as a recruit after finishing school.”
“But you’re not sure - “
“No, if I were sure she’d be in the brig. She had access, but so did at least four other stewards and the cooks. Thing is, she’s the only one with a close link to Diplo - not just any heavyworld planet, but Diplo. She’s actually visited twice, as an adult, in protective gear. We don’t know anything about it, of course. And anyone who wanted to incriminate a heavyworlder could hardly have found a better way than to use a Diplo poison.”
“Could she have popped the missile?” Currald glanced at Arly, who quickly shook her head.
“No - we checked that, of course, right away. Particularly when both my techs in that quadrant came up sick. But they were well when the missile went off, and unless they’re in it together they clear each other. I think myself it was a handheld pulse shot, probably from a service hatch down the corridor, that triggered the missile.”
“You remember that Fleet Intelligence warned each captain to expect at least one agent… they didn’t say only one,” said Sass. “I think the character of the missile launch and the poisoning are so different as to point to two different individuals with two different goals. But what I can’t figure out for sure is what someone hoped to gain by random poisoning. Unless the poisoner had a group of supporters to take over the ship…”