– No, Captain, we only know that HE is among the “scientists”, but we have not yet been able to find out which one of them is. Only Captain Benaip, you and I knew he was on the ship.
– Well, all right. Too bad about those smart guys, but it can’t be helped. I do love secrecy. Sometimes it makes things so much easier. Get Mdjey and his crew out here. Have them take this dead idealist and will put his body in order. No one, you hear me, third, no one, must have a shadow of a doubt as to the naturalness of his demise. Otherwise, you can start a rumor about the conspirator – the second mate of the captain. The video of how you killed Benaip, my dear, is just lovely.
– But, Captain, how can you? I’m absolutely faithful to you!
– I know, I know. That’s just me… An old habit, you know. Well, so be it! Consider that this record does not exist. Call the team. You wait for them here, and I think I’ll be going. I’ve got a lot of things to do. That lowlife Zwigg has bled the Empire dry enough already. It’s time to put an end to him and his dynasty once and for all!
After saying that, one of the men who spoke began to slowly walk away while the other radioed for someone. The quick footsteps of several pairs of feet were heard. The third assistant said something to them. The team picked up the body with a barely audible rustle and carried it back down the hallway. The welding machine started up. Soon that door was welded shut as well. There was complete silence.
– F-f-f -u-u-u-u! – Jum exhaled noisily and looked around at his friends. – Wow!
Tana, frozen with horror, only clapped her eyes and could not utter a word. Dak rubbed the map he held in both hands and shook his head as if in disagreement.
– Wow, that’s right! – Abis repeated after Jum. – What is it? They killed the captain! Not only that, they’re conspirators against the Emperor!
– Exactly. You’ve captured the essence! The question is, what do we do with all this now? – Jum replied with a nod of his head.
– Colleagues, have you noticed one, or rather two additional details in this “conversation”? The first is that tomorrow we will be presented with a planet, and the second is that mysterious “HE” that the conspirators were talking about? – Dak said faintly.
– Guys, – Tana woke up, – let’s get out of here, or that Mdjey and his men might show up at any moment. And then we risk sharing Benaip’s fate.
– I take it, – grinned Jum, who had come to his senses, – no one wants to take the new route? Let’s go back. That Cogl will be first again. So, what! We might save the world! Or ourselves… Whatever… Let’s go.
And they began to climb the stairs carefully.
In the wardroom they had to endure a few unpleasant moments after, when asked by Tabit, why they had come empty-handed, Jum had lied that his crew had gotten lost in the main corridor. In response, the entire wardroom, filled with both old and young scientists, burst into laughter. After a quick meal, under a hail of taunts, sometimes good-natured and sometimes mocking (mostly from the team of the again victorious Cogl), the guys with their heads down quickly made their way to Jum’s quarters.
– Honestly, it wasn’t the most pleasant moment of my life! – Tana said gloomily.
– Ahhhh… Never mind. I had to say something, didn’t I? I think we’ll forget all about it tomorrow. We’ve got a lot of other headaches now.
– I agrees! – Abis reacted vigorously. – We have to decide what to do with the information we got thanks to, – he grinned, – Jum’s ingenuity.
– Okay, okay. It remains to be seen if this is so bad. You don’t have to thank me. Let’s think about what to do next! – Jum parried. – Dak, are you still not talking? As the most sensible of us all, surely you have your own thoughts on the matter? Share them.
– All right! – Dak answered after a second pause, – I think so… Don’t say a word to anyone about what we’ve seen and heard. Not a living soul! It’s in our best interest. Tomorrow, when the crew is notified of the captain’s death, we’ll mourn with everyone else. No, Tana, I understand what you’re trying to say.… Not a word to Tabit either! We don’t know if he’s a conspirator too. Until we know for sure who’s loyal and who’s not, not a word to anyone. So, I continue, we grieve, we walk with sad faces. After the report on the planet, we’re going to work together. Finding out everything about the planet could be vital. In that sense, we’re the perfect team.
– Right, – Jum said. – You, Abis, learn all about life, both large and small; Tana, you take care of the planet’s structure; Dak finds out about the atmosphere; and I, if I have any luck with the local population, try to figure out how to communicate with them.
– All that’s great, – Dak said again, – but we mustn’t forget what they might do to us (I mean all the scientists and crew members loyal to the Emperor) after we’ve done all the work for this stranger and the third assistant captain! The good thing is that by tomorrow the name of this stranger will be known. After all, I understand he’s about to proclaim himself captain.
– Guys, what can they do to us? – Tana whispered fearfully.
– That’s what I understand Dak is going to talk to us about! – Abis said. – Isn’t that right, Dak?
– Yes! And I don’t just want to talk. I want to consider every possible hypothesis.
– That’s right! – Jum echoed his thought. – Perhaps our lives, and the lives of most of the people on our ship, will depend on how accurately we predict events.
– That’s true, – continued Dak, – but we have very little incoming information. Let’s try to build a logical chain. First! A usurper we know nothing about. Two! Conspirators on a ship who, for some reason, want to explore a planet somewhere on the fringes of the Empire. Three! A mysterious “HE” who is needed by the conspirators for some reason, but apparently doesn’t know it himself. And he could be anywhere among the scientists. You can say what you want, but I think he’s in danger. I suggest we all go to our quarters to think, analyze and compare. Tomorrow is a busy day. After what each of you can think up and find out more, we’ll get together in the evening and think it over again.
The next morning, just after breakfast, the mournful, but so familiar to them from yesterday’s events, voice of the third mate captain announced over the speakerphone that Captain Benaip had been treacherously murdered. – This atrocious murder was apparently committed by the captain’s first mate, as he is nowhere to be found. Apparently, after the crime, he tried to cover his tracks and was mistakenly thrown into a missile silo, from where, due to a false activation of the automatic ‘ejection’, he was thrown into space. There he goes! We all mourn the untimely passing of our wonderful Officer Benaip. – And so on…
Everyone in the wardroom stood with their mouths open in amazement, unable to believe what had happened. After all, in long-distance expeditions the loss of a leader is an extraordinary event, and the murder of a captain is something unimaginable. In the entire history of long-distance flights of the last hundred cycles, something like this had happened only once. And even then, it was a farce. The captain of that expedition had fallen in love with a beautiful woman on some distant planet and flatly refused to return not only to his duties, but to the ship at all. After that he was taken by force, bound and taken to the ship’s wardroom, where, in accordance with the Charter, he was demoted, subjected to civil execution and thrown back to the planet