Page 69 of The Darkest Parts of Me

“What if we cut it to four?”

Locke clenches his teeth, but to his credit, he holds in the anger no doubt bubbling beneath his skin as he says, “If that’s your order then . . . it will do.”

Renn smiles wide, trying not to enjoy the reaction. “I’ll put in the request today for four more officers. If there isn’t anything else, you are dismissed.” Before the last word is completely out of his mouth, Locke is already standing, heading for the door. “Aren’t you forgetting something, Lieutenant?”

Locke pauses, turning slowly, facing his superior, and it’s flat-out painful as he says, “Thank you, Captain.” Saluting Renn, his posture is stiff, as if he’s fighting with his limbs to give his captain the respect he deserves. Renn nods, and Locke slips out the door.

Renn lets out a long sigh, shaking his head. “Trouble,” he says aloud to himself.

Colin Locke is more trouble than he could have realized.

After making the rounds through the ship and spending time on the bridge, Captain Anton eats dinner in the dining hall with some of the crew. He enjoys the downtime he gets with them and likes getting to know them on a more casual level. At times like these, when it’s been quite some time since coming across a new planet, relationships are more vital than ever. Instead of feeling uneasy in the overwhelming sense of drifting through space, the crew actually enjoys each other’s company; well, most of them. Renn notices as dinner is winding down that he hasn’t seen Nate anywhere. It’s very unlike him not to make an appearance, especially when most of the crew is gathered together, so he makes a point to send him a message when he returns to his quarters.

The captain stops for a final check-in on the bridge—everything is quiet and normal, so he lazily makes his way to his quarters, saying a few goodnights to the crew members he passes. The lights in his cabin are dim as he enters, evoking a sense of night to ease the transition into sleep. Renn performs his nightly routine of tossing his worn clothes neatly into the bin for laundry, doing a quick workout in his personal gym, taking a shower, brushing his teeth, and ends by sliding into bed with his handheld tablet so he can look over a few more messages and stats before falling asleep.

He types in Nate’s name to find where he’s currently located on the ship. The crew have their wrist devices for communication that also track their whereabouts. The wrist devices are worn mostly in case of emergency or to ensure they don’t leave anyone behind if they ever venture onto a new planet. Nate doesn’t come up anywhere on the ship; it isn’t alarming, but odd. Just as he’s about to message his friend, a beeping tone sounds, indicating that someone is at his door. Again, not unheard of, but odd at this time of the day. Renn makes his way to the door swifty but calmly, then pushes the button to speak to whoever is on the other side.

“Who is it?” he asks softly.

“Renn. Open the door. Quick.” Nate’s hurried voice comes through the speaker, and Renn doesn’t hesitate to push the button to slide the door open. Nate bursts inside and locks the door behind him by pushing a few buttons on the keypad.

“Nate? What is—”

“Shh,” Nate whispers, cutting him off. “Not yet. In your office, where it’s private.”

Renn’s eyebrows knit together in concern as he follows Nate into the office they were in earlier that morning. Nate runs a hand over his face, and Renn secures the door behind them. When he turns, he notices that Nate has a sheen of sweat on his forehead, his breathing uneven.

“Nate? What’s going on?” Nate doesn’t say anything, covering his face with his hands, trying to take deep breaths. “Nate?”

Nate finally looks at Renn, and Renn almost takes a step back out of shock at the fear and panic he sees in his friend’s eyes—something he’s never seen before in all the years he’s known him.

“I found something,” Nate says slowly.

Renn carefully studies his friend, trying to get a sense of what he means, and when he can’t think of anything he asks, “What did you find?”

Without a word, Nate strides over to the captain’s desk. “I’m putting a security block on your computer.”

Renn doesn't ask questions. He trusts Nate completely, but why he needs to do this leaves him confused. After rapidly typing away on Renn’s touch-screen keyboard, Nate slowly pulls out a small, square, photon drive and sets it on top of the desk where the files can be read easily just from the touch screen-like surface.

“I didn’t want to mention this earlier, because I didn’t know what it really meant, but I started looking into outgoing messages being sent from the ship. Not just official reports, but personal messages from the crew.” Renn cocks his head to the side in disapproval, but is still curious. “I know, but listen. I was just doing my normal check on the systems including the ICM, but I noticed an enigmatic signal.” The ICM—Interstellar Communication System—is vital, especially in deep space, so Aldrenn knows routine checks are needed, but looking into messages is something else. Renn gives Nate a wary glance. “I know, I know.”

“Nate,” Renn says, shaking his head, “do you know how much trouble you could get in? Cyber intrusion, cyberstalking—both are criminal offenses.”

Nate offers him a half-hearted smirk. “Oh, come on. It’s me you’re talking to. Like they could ever trace it back to me.” Renn opens his mouth to say something else, but Nate stops him by saying, “Just wait.” The look of panic resurfaces in his eyes, forcing Renn to snap his mouth shut. “At first, I found nothing, but then I started seeing a pattern of messages being sent from someone on the Seraphim to a user outside of our system.”

Renn leans forward as the messages start popping up on the screen. All the messages seem to be fairly short, one or two sentences at the most, and all appear to be signed by the same person.

“Who are Z and X?” Renn asks quietly.

“I don’t know, I couldn’t track it down, or at least not yet.”

Renn quickly reads over a few of the messages.

Two more sites have been identified. Coordinates will be sent soon. All is well.

- Z

This is good news.

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