The Riddled Post - Aaron Rosenberg [22]
“Just goes to show you can’t predict everything,” Kieran chimed in. “Or maybe that sometimes it pays to do shoddy work.”
“Well, don’t try that one on my ship,” Gold warned, “or you’ll be digging through some deep rocks yourself, catch my drift?” He smiled to show he wasn’t serious about having to give the warning. He was dead serious about the punishment.
“Yes sir, Captain!” Kieran’s salute was only half-mocking, and Gold let it pass. The young man had done some good work here, as usual, and he’d never been one to stand on formalities.
But he did still have a question for his first officer, something that had bothered him since they arrived. “Did we ever figure out how it all started?”
Sonya grimaced. “Unfortunately, we think so.”
“Oh?” He waited for her to explain.
“Well, the door to Madl’r’s room was unlocked when Corsi first found it—the only one in the building that was. This was his private workspace, and he was obviously serious about keeping things secure, so he didn’t just forget. Someone opened it.”
“Not Madl’r?”
Sonya shook her head. “His body was near the commissary. But one of the other miners, a man named Stephen Cortez, was found just beyond the building.” She sighed, and Gold was reminded again how young she was—and how old he sometimes felt. “Cortez had transferred there eight months ago, one of the last to arrive. According to his records he was a solid worker, specializing in computer operations and remote drilling, but he kept switching from spot to spot, always going for places with fewer people but high potential reward.”
“Out to strike it rich, eh?” Gold frowned. “Never works, you ask me. Hard work is the only way to succeed, not hoping for one lucky strike.”
“Which is probably why he kept moving on—each place failed to pan out. But here—according to the station logs and our two survivors, Cortez kept prowling around the scientists, asking questions about their work.”
“Looking for something he could use, no doubt.”
“Exactly. And he must have decided Madl’r had it. We’re guessing he waited until Madl’r had just left, then snuck into the building and managed to crack the lock. He found the device, probably poked at it a bit to try figuring it out—and set it off—”
“—and killed himself and everyone else down there.” Gold shook his head. “Bad enough he got himself killed, but he took out everyone else along the way. I hate it when other people suffer because one jerk couldn’t control himself.” He turned back to Sonya. “Good job, Commander—as always.” He meant it, too—the young commander had done nothing but impress him ever since she’d taken over the team.
“Thank you, sir. The team gets most of the credit.” That was one of the things he liked most about her— like himself, she was always willing to give her people credit. She didn’t notice his smile, though—she was glancing at the device instead. “What’s going to happen to that thing, Captain?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I put a call in to Starfleet, letting Captain Scott know we had it. We’ll see what they want done. I’d just as soon have it off my ship, to be honest. It makes me nervous.” Sonya looked up and met his eyes, and he could tell she agreed. That thing had killed an entire outpost—the sooner it was off the da Vinci, the better.
* * *
“Be careful with it,” Fabian warned as the two Starfleet officers carried the device and its cradle onto their shuttlecraft. “We think sudden changes in air pressure or maybe ambient current could activate it. Not right now, of course—we pulled its circuits before bringing it up. But if it’s reassembled, tell them to be careful and to keep it in a shielded room.”
“We can handle it, thanks,” one of the two replied. Then they were inside the shuttlecraft and the door had closed behind them. Fabian thought they’d seemed in a hurry to leave, but perhaps that was just because they’d been rushed—their ship had been pulled from another mission to detour and retrieve the device.
“It bugs me that Starfleet wanted to see the thing,” Duffy commented, standing next to Fabian in the docking bay.