Chapter 41 Day 21 The Fifth Shipmate
The silence was deafening after 20 days of the low but constant roar of the engines. Of course it's never completely silent aboard a ship – there are always a multitude of fans and motors running all about the ship, but these small sounds often only emphasized the silence of a ship in the endless black sea of space.
I stepped out from the bridge into the passageway, and noticed light streaming from the tech office's open door-panel. It occurred to me that I'd not had a chance to talk with Rafe about the true log project since we left Sanre-tay orbit, so I shuffled free fall style in my magnetic soled boots once again, down the short companionway and looked in.
'Hey Rafe, have a minute?' I asked from the doorway.
He swung his chair around to greet me, 'Hi Willy. Always a minute for the Cap'n.'
'I was just wondering how our project is going. I realize you didn't have a lot of time to work on it since we left Sanre-tay.' Running under power keeps everyone busy.
'Aye, not a lot. Still, I've been meaning to talk to you about what I have found. Step in, and slide that door-panel closed, will you?' And with a sweeping wave of his hand invited me to take the other seat in the small office/workshop.
'What'd you find?' Curious now, as I slid the door-panel closed behind me.
'Not very much at all, at least what we were looking for. Truth be told, Willy, I'm afraid I've about reached the limit of what I can do without turning up too much. With Tenny's help, we've recovered all of the log I believe recoverable with all the data we're likely ever to have. We've extracted a thirty-five-year period backwards from when the current log gets real fifty-three years ago, so we've almost eighty-eight years of records that go back to when Hawker Vinden actually purchased the ship.'
'Well, that sounds rather promising.'
He shook his head. 'I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed. First off, if you expected the log to provide some context to all their yarns, you're going to be disappointed. Most of the tales they told likely happened, if they happened at all, prior to Hawker's actual purchase of the ship. I believe they served on this ship off and on for several decades before purchasing it. I've no idea how things worked back before they actually owned the ship. Those earlier logs were kept by a series of different captains, for which we have no data to use as a hook to fish and extract data. Plus, with all the crew using different names and constantly changing them, we really can't use much of what we've learned to go back further. So prior to Tenny's first contact with the Four Shipmates, it's pretty much a blank slate and likely to stay that way, if we have to rely on the ship's log.'
'What've you learned from what we've recovered? They had to be up to something in those thirty-five years...'
'I'll turn the log over to you when I'm completely finished fishing. There's just a few more treads to pull, but I don't expect any surprises. From what I've found, I can tell you there's nothing alarming in the log with which you need to concern yourself. It's just a typical log, a complex record of the cargoes they hauled between Unity ports and far sketchier records of their trading in the drifts, with several odd blank sections lasting years at a time when they seemed to somehow avoid leaving any record at all. Don't know how they managed that. The one factor that may be significant is that many of those voyages begin and end on Kintrine, a drift world of some sort. It would seem to have been some sort of home port for them back then. I don't know how helpful that will be to the lass.'
'Kintrine? Never heard of it. Where is it?'
'On the far side of the Ninth Star, half way between Alantzia and Amdia, on the edge of the inner drifts. In short, the middle of nowhere at all...'
'Well, that figures. Two or three years away...' I said, lost in thought. 'Can't imagine there'd be any reason why we'd ever have a reason to go there.'
'Can't imagine why anyone would...'
We considered that in silence for a moment or two. We'd be hard pressed to find any reason to take the ship half way across the Nebula to a tiny drift world, which would involve a long trip around the Neb to Alantzia through the drifts...
'Ah, Willy...'
'Yes?'
'Well, you see, Willy, I'm in a somewhat awkward position... I may've unintentionally found something important. Or not. I'm not certain.'
'What, and how so?'
He considered the question before shrugging and saying, 'I'll leave it to you to deal with. I'll trust you to handle this with tact, if you think it's even necessary to pursue it at all.'
'What are you leaving to me to pursue?' I asked warily.
'Well, you see, in digging through the true log, I've come to believe that there may have been actually five Shipmates, not just four.'
'Five shipmates? How could that be? And what makes you think that?'
He shrugged again, 'I can't be sure how important it is. I can't be sure there was a fifth, but, well, I've got this feeling, Willy. It makes too much sense...'
I gave him a close look. He knew, he was just being cagey. 'I know you too well, Rafe. You'd not put your reputation on the line on an off chance. You know. And you intend to tell me. So do so.'
'I'm trusting you Wil. Deal with this carefully.' he said gravely.
I nodded my agreement.
'As I said, it seems that the whole crew changed their names every time they changed the name and registry of the ship, which they changed every time they went into the drift and back. So not only did crew members come and go over those thirty some years, but those that stayed sailed with constantly shifting names. So what I'm going to tell you is little more than a shrewd guess – a feeling – on my part. I'll leave it to you to decide how to proceed, based on a guess by ol'Rafe.'
I took that with a grain of salt. Rafe knew. He wouldn't have mentioned a mere guess.
'What makes this so awkward,' he continued, 'is that I've come to believe that our old shipmate Dyn has been aboard the ship ever since the late Hawker bought it, and likely long before...' He paused to watch my reaction, and hurried on, ‘You see, Willy, each crew member's record is like a thread which changes colors with each name change. I can usually find enough clues in the log to tell me if a crew member leaves, breaking the old thread with a new one, or if it merely changed colors with a new name for an old on the books. There are subtle clues in the payroll accounts, crew accommodations, health records and stuff that link one name to another. I believe I can account for all the threads, and they all eventually break, except for those of the Four Shipmates and, well, one more. So unless I've missed a break somewhere, there's a fifth unbroken thread running through all those years and to my knowledge, remains unbroken right up until today. And yet, this fifth shipmate has remained completely in the shadows, never mentioned in the stories at all. Can you think of anyone aboard the ship today that is more likely to be this shadowy fifth shipmate than Dyn zerDey? And I can tell you this, fifty-two years ago, when I first signed on, back in the Apier System, just before Miccall took her to Azminn, Dyn was already aboard with every indication of having been on board a long time.'
'I didn't know that you came over with the Lost Star.'
'Yes, Willy, I'd signed on two years before they decided to sail for Azminn. Bar and Say signed on when I did and the rest that came over, after us. So if I'm right about this fifth shipmate, if I haven't missed a break in that thread or tied two broken threads together, Dyn would seem to be the only one who fits that description.'
'Yes, I'd have to agree...'
'And if I'm right, then he's sailed with the Four Shipmates during all of the dark ages of the Lost Star I've spent hours fishing out, which, I must point out, makes all my work in vain, since he can just tell us all about that period. If he chooses too. Or should I say –if he had chosen to, since he certainly knew about my project... And how much more does he know, and hasn't said? How far back does he go?'
I stared at him thinking what I knew of Miccall and Dyn.
'He and Miccall were in
separable,' I said, after some musing. 'I always knew he came with the old gang to Azminn, but never asked him about his stories. He's a closed book, and I've never felt I knew him well enough to quiz him about his and Miccall's relationship. It makes sense, now that you point it out. A lot of sense. Certainly, if anyone was with them during those days, and yet would never be mentioned, it could only have been Dyn. He seems to simply fade into the background, and would even if he didn't spend so much of his time between the hulls...'
'Exactly. But Willy, before you go off running to ask him about it, keep in mind that Dyn's known about this project and of all the trouble those old days may have brought to young Min, and said nothing. At least nothing we know of. Though perhaps he's talked to Min on his own. We don't know for sure, do we?'
I shook my head. 'Not that I know.'
'And remember, We've no way of knowing how much of the story he does know. He may not figure into their accounts because he was never involved in them in any substantial way. He may simply have nothing to offer. You'd best consider long and carefully if you want to open this box up, my lad. Do you really want to put Dyn on the spot? We're off to the drifts, and I'm certain you'd not want to replace an environmental engineer with a drifteer spaceer on the beach.'
I nodded. 'Point taken. Do you intend to mention this in your report to Min or will she have to figure it out for herself?'
'It'll not be in the report, but, if she digs deep enough into the log itself, she might come to realize it – but she'd have to dig deep.'
'Damn. It is bloody awkward,' I said, thinking of all the implications. 'I certainly don't want to put Dyn on the spot, yet I have a feeling anything I say will put him on the spot. As you said, we have to assume he knows about your work and what happened to Min's folks... Though it's hard to see what he could've done, or be doing to help. I think we can trust that he'll speak up should the time come when it's critical. And as you say, he may have decided just to confide in Min. And yet, if he hasn't and she figures it out, and realizes that we're withholding this information...'
'Aye, Willy. That's the problem. We don't know what he knows, where he stands or how to find out without starting something... Unfortunate.'
'Well, I'm certain we can trust him. It's just a matter of, well approaching him... when to approach him, why to approach him...'
'I'll leave it to you, Willy. If I said anything, it'd be meddling. If you did it, it's ship's business.'
'Do you think I need to at all?'
He shrugged and gave me a look. 'You, perhaps know more about that than I.'
'Perhaps. Though not enough to know what to do. We'll just see how I feel after giving this some thought, I guess. We've time enough...'
'That, we have.'
'Well, thanks Rafe for all your work. Let me see the log and report when you're done, and I'll turn it over to Min. I'll think about how to deal with Dyn.'