“The signal!” shouted Lascek. He jumped to his feet. “Dr Judith, go get Paean! She’s got to see this!”
Paean stumbled onto the bridge thirty seconds later, still very confused from sleeping. She bent over the monitor they were motioning to. It took her a moment to read. Her heart skipped a beat.
“It’s Federi! He made it!” she shouted. “I knew it! Didn’t I tell you?” She grinned triumphantly at the officers.
“You did well, Paean,” said Dr Judith, and Dr Jake clapped his hand on her shoulder approvingly.
Paean fixed her gaze on the screen again.
“Solar Wind come in,” it read.
“Solar Wind coming in,” Dr Jake had typed.
“This is Federi. Aboard the Rebel Schooner RS 6923. Haven’t found Marsden yet. Sending our satellite signal. Am free. Situation precarious, all crew not yet dead. Say hi to Paean. Hope you guys listened to her.”
All eyes were fixed on Paean.
“What?” she asked, suddenly self-conscious. The Captain motioned her out of the way as Federi activated the satellite signal of the RS vessel to be sent to the Solar Wind.
Federi had stopped all the engines. He had set the signal to continue sending, so that the Solar Wind could track them easily.
He glanced at the dead Rebel. Young man caught in the crossfire. And at his own hands. Blood had sprayed everywhere, over the console, over his shirt… he’d have to clean the Stiletto, too…
“Sorry, man! Blast, life’s short! Sorry about Juan too.”
He couldn’t start thinking like this right now! He hadn’t yet finished the job! Federi took a deep breath and left the bridge in search of Marsden.
The little green bug had started working. People had been getting themselves something to drink. Similar to Captain’s rules, the Rebellion had a policy that forbade the Rebels the use of alcohol while on duty, so coffee was the favoured beverage. Federi only had half as many Rebels to execute. For now, he left the sleeping ones in peace.
Suddenly a commotion arose from the direction of the bridge. Federi crept closer to the control room again and waited. Somebody had found the body on the floor beneath the stepladder. Seconds later, another outcry came from the bridge itself. They had found the second dead man. He hadn’t bothered hiding either of them. He wanted to know when people discovered that their bridge had been usurped.
Federi waited in the shadows beneath the stepladder for the finder to come charging down; then he lost no time terminating him as well. He abhorred that kind of noise. It had a way of following him into his dreams.