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“This is impossible,” she said, giving voice to what he was thinking with puzzlement. “There’s no way all this freight fits into the ship we boarded. What the seven hells is going on here?”
Ahead Theo could see the blinking lights of the exit into the main body of the vessel. “Guy must have been a puzzle expert or something—he sure packed it all in efficiently. We’re a bit on edge. If Fleming does assign me to take over the ship as salvage, I won’t get bored doing inventory, I’m sure.”
The other two laughed with him but the amusement sounded a bit forced and echoed in the hold until it sounded as if an entire audience of people was entertained by the idea. Theo clenched his jaw, finding the sound annoying and eerie. “Terrible fucking acoustics in here.”
He was relieved to emerge into the corridor and watch the cargo hold doors close behind the security man, who was the last person out. “A quick stop in the engine room and then back to the bridge,” Theo said, impatience gnawing at him. “I’ll have enough to go on to report to Fleming. You concur?”
“Sounds good.” Jayna gave him a curt nod. “Without taking this ship apart we can’t do much to solve the mystery of where the crew went, since they didn’t bother to leave a note or any clues, but we can tell the captain there’s no one else here and nothing to concern us.”
As they walked in the direction of the engine room, the security officer cleared his throat. “There was that one thing.”
Theo and Jayna both swung around to stare at him. “What the seven hells are you talking about, Bellizer?” she asked sharply.
Eyes wide, he did a doubletake. “In the kid’s cabin, on the bulkhead. Didn’t you see it?”
The back of Theo’s neck prickled again. “See what?”
“The word, scrawled on the wall beside the bed.”
“If this is a joke—” Jayna’s tone was sharp.
Now the man stopped walking and looked from one to the other. “Are you serious? You didn’t see it?”
“Just spit it out, tell us what you think you saw.” Theo was tired of the whole conversation.
“One word someone had written in red crayon,” the officer said. “Nishagwaq.”
“Means nothing to me,” Theo said, checking with Jayna, who shrugged and spread her hands wide, palms up. “Probably gibberish the kid was pretending to write. Kids like to draw on walls—my nieces and nephews have all done it at one time or another.”
As they started walking again, the man shook his head. “It was written so hard the crayon was coming apart.” He appealed to Jayna. “You sure you didn’t see it? You were standing right there.”
“I observed her name above the door, nothing else. I’m not too worried about it but I appreciate you mentioning it.”
“Yeah, sure thing. Kinda gave me the willies,” he said.
Bellizer remained outside the engine room as a guard while Theo and Jayna entered to confer with the Nebula Zephyr’s engine tech who they found studying the readouts in the small control center. Jayna waited in the doorway as Theo squeezed inside to talk to Abrall.
“What’s the verdict? Can she make it Najie Three?” he asked.
“She should be able to. I’ve never seen one this old but we studied it in propulsion class. It’s a standard King & Royp first generation hyperdrive engine, built for this kind of small freighter but then someone made a hell of a lot of modifications to it.” Casting a glance at the readouts again, Abrall rubbed his hands on his pants legs. “I don’t know what half the changes are, much less how or why anyone would tinker so much with a good engine.” The mere idea appeared to offend him. “They used nonstandard parts—things I’ve never seen before.”
Theo was dismayed and pushed for more clarity. “But we’d be okay to go to Najie Three at lightspeed?”
“I can’t guarantee anything of course.” The man fidgeted. “She’s running fine, other than the damn screech.”
“Screech?” Theo heard no such sound.
“Yeah, like voices almost. It’s getting on my nerves but until I have time to study the engine, I can’t locate the source and eliminate it.” Seeming to realize he wasn’t giving Theo a definitive answer, the tech scanned the readouts for the third time, biting his lip. “Yeah, okay, you can tell the captain we’re good to go. Green across the board.”
Theo clapped Abrall on the shoulder. “Great news.” Turning to Jayna, he said, “Let’s get back to the bridge then and let Fleming know the status. I’m sure he’s more than ready to move on.”
He set a fast pace on the relatively brief walk to the control chamber, trying not to become too excited over the prospect of commanding this salvaged vessel. The tech spun her chair to face him the instant he arrived on the bridge.
“Captain Fleming has called twice, wanting an update, sir,” she said.
“Twice?” Surprised, Theo checked his wrist chrono and was shocked how much time they’d spent on their tour of the ship. “Can you raise him for me now, please?” He sank into the captain’s chair in the center of the well and Jayna came to stand next to him. “How could it take so long to walk around this tiny ship?” he asked her in a low tone.
“I thought the cargo hold was oversized—maybe that was it,” she said with a frown. “But two hours? No way we were gone on our walkabout for two frigging hours.” Raising her voice, she spoke to the tech. “Why didn’t you com us about Fleming’s calls?”
