Page 30 of Vicious
"It's not a ghost," I said, the words fogging the air as if to prove me wrong. "With the cold, yes, it feels like it, but it's not. I invited whatever grabbed me in, and nothing happened. Of course, I had that same problem on Orin, and that definitelywasaghost.”
Captain Glenn’s dark gaze snapped to mine. “What problem on Orin? Whatghost?”
I shrugged. “I’m broken? I don’t know. For some reason, the ghost on Orin in the bar didn’t, or couldn’t, pass through me. But a ghost on this ship doesn't explain why we heard Ellison's voice. She's right here, very muchalive."
“It also doesn’t explain why we have seven lifeforms.” The captain stared at the ceiling and rubbed his hands up and down the sides of his face vigorously, his dark eyes shiningbright.
Randolph stared down into his empty wine glass and gripped the edge of the table until white tipped his knuckles. Mase sat back in his chair, my hand still crushed in his, and hissed out a breath. Ellison cleaned my head methodically. So, it looked they were taking all this news ratherwell.
“Randolph, you’re sure you locked the ship up when you left?" Captain Glennasked.
“Of course I’m sure.” Randolph pointed vaguely around the room. "Maybe our Saelis engineer here brought some helping hands withher."
"For the last time, Tits," Poh growled from her stance by the hallway door. "I'm noSaelis."
Captain Glenn pinned Randolph with a warning look. “Randolph…”
"Well, maybe you’re not a Saelis, but maybe you have friends who are," Randolph said, ignoring everything but his empty wineglass.
"Randolph," I hissed, then pointed a finger between us. "Monkey descendants. You and I. Just because she shares certain characteristics with them, doesn’t mean she is one. Or do you have a problem with monkeystoo?"
He stared down his ruddy, bulbous nose at me. "When they fling shit, yes I do. I saw her go back there..." He turned in his seat to jab at the double doors to the kitchen. "To the stasis pantry, and she was in there for most of the time you were gone crawling through the air vents. Maybe she was communicating with her friend on thisship."
"I have no friends," Poh said and met my gaze, "and I washungry."
I had no reason to doubt her. For all she knew, we were the bad guys. Actually wewerethe bad guys, at least according to the law. Yet here she was, putting up with Randolph’s accusations and helping us deal with whatever haunted thisship.
"No, you weren’t there to see her on Orin," Mase said. "She saved our sweet asses fromParker."
Randolph lifted an eyebrow. "Of course she did. To gain yourtrust."
"Randolph," I said, my voice low and deadly. "You're nothelping."
He slid a hurt look toward me. “Fine. I’m nothelping.”
I sighed and shook my head. No matter what anyone said, it would only fuel our distrust of each other, which wouldn’t solve any of ourproblems.
“What we need is some way to track this seventh passenger down.” Captain Glenn leaned forward over the table. “Capture it. See what itwants.”
“I could maybe rig a Mind-I to do that for us.” Poh glanced at me. “If I hadone.”
“Nesbit had one that wasn’t planted in his head,” Mase said. “Anyone know where itis?”
“I’ve already been looking for it to get word about the Saelis to my dad and my roommate back home,” Isaid.
“We need to find it if you think you can rig it like that, Poh. That’s priority number one. Priority number two is keeping close together. Safety in numbers, since we have no idea what this thing wants. We sleep in here tonight.” Captain Glenn gave Mase and me a meaningful stare. “For some of us, we’re quite used tothat.”
A sinking feeling weighted my shoulders. I’d repelled the ghosts with iron when the crew had slept in the dining room before. But this wasn’t a ghost, and I feared we wouldn’t be safe atall.
“Captain, if I don’t find a Mind-I, does this ship have working outside communication so we can ask for help?” Pohasked.
The captain closed his eyes as if to unsee everything wrong with our situation. “Outside communication, yes.Workingoutside communication,no.”
Mase tightened into a metal rod next to me and vibrated like he’d been struck with an angry hammer. “That fucking bastard Parker is jamming our outside telecom to anything beyond a small radius so he can egg meon.”
Captain Glenn shook his head. “Basically if we can’t see a ship, then we can’t talk to it. And I doubt the Ring Guild would come running to help us knowing that we have a traitorhere.”
I forced a shaky exhale. So we were floating through deep space with a severely limited way to call for help, no way to send word to Pop and Moon about the looming threat to humanity, while my trust in the ship’s crew diminished and a seventh lifeform lurked in theshadows.
