The Journey Home, Part 2 (Ch 15)
Chapter 15
The XO rocked back in his chair and looked past his tablet at the wall.
Dingle’s record was hardly a curriculum vitae indicative of leadership qualities. Yet he was the supposed ringleader of the effort to blow up The Ark?
The XO frowned. Still, why had he wanted to sabotage Earth’s effort to spread humans to another part of the galaxy anyway? Why would he even care? He certainly didn’t seem the political type. Or the philosophical type, for that matter. But had he been successful, it would almost certainly have delayed the future of the program. And the XO realized the success of The Ark was important for more reasons than one.
Even as The Ark had departed lunar orbit, two other generation ships—Journey and Homecoming—were also in orbit and in various stages of completion. Journey was maybe a third of the way finished and Homecoming was in its infancy. With propulsion technology on Earth moving ahead by leaps and bounds, the hope was that the third ship might reach its destination even while The Ark and Journey were still plugging along.
Of course, those on The Ark would never know what happened for sure since the other ships would be headed in different directions. It wasn’t like anyone on The Ark would ever look out the observation window in the Bridge Lounge and see a faster generation ship shoot past. Still, it was a fascinating thought to contemplate and it added hope in layers, ship by ship, to the possibility of success.
The XO looked at the tablet again. Quietly, he said, “Why would you care if we went to space, Mr. Dingle? What gives with you?”
He tapped the tablet to go back to the original page and the timestamp next to Posey’s line caught his attention. It read 1643:43. Something didn’t seem right about that.
As he looked at it, then compared it to the other two, he frowned.
The doctor had delayed accepting Posey’s results for a full minute after he’d accepted the other two.
Why?
And a chilling thought struck him. He looked at the wall and said, “General?”
“Yes?”
“I have some test results. If you have a minute, I need to see you. It’s urgent.”
“Come. CO out.”
A moment later, he walked into General Lowrey’s office and sat down in front of her desk.
She looked up. “What is it, Frank? You said you had some results?”
“Yes ma’am, from the DNA tests.” He leaned forward slightly. “As we expected, Posey came back a mismatch. His name is actually Jeffrey Louis Dingle. He’s a bad boy from Las Vegas.”
“And the other two?”
“As I expected, they came back clean. ”
“Clean? And those are the results you expected?” She frowned. “So they’re actually who they say they are? But—”
“Yes ma’am. I thought maybe I’d have the doctor run their tests again to be sure, but—”
“Yes. Do that.”
“Yes ma’am, I will. But I really don’t think it’ll make a difference. Neither of them seemed part of it like Posey did. Or Dingle, rather. They didn’t seem as committed maybe. If you remember, Wilson was just a kid and that’s exactly what he sounded like. I’m sure he was recruited on board.”
The general nodded. “Yes, I had the same feeling about him. But Schaeffer—”
“Begging your pardon, ma’am, Schaeffer was basically the same. He seemed more concerned maybe, but not really like he was part of it. Remember what he said? And more importantly, how he said it?”
She leaned back in her chair and a smile played at the corners of her mouth. “Of course. He said we’re all going to hell.”
“Yes ma’am. But before that.”
“Before that?”
The XO nodded. “He said, and I quote, ‘You can’t stop ‘em, General’.”
She shrugged. “And?”
“He said them, Amanda. He said ‘You can’t stop them.’ He didn’t say ‘You can’t stop us’.”
She sat forward in her chair and her brow furrowed. “I see your point.”
“And if you remember, his voice was quiet. Subdued. It was almost like he felt relieved. Like we’d rescued him. And he looked away from us the whole time, remember? Like he was ashamed.”
“You really think so?”
“Yes ma’am. I’d bet money on it.”
“That would be nice, wouldn’t it? If only money were at stake?” She shook her head. “Unfortunately, the real stakes are much higher than that. We’re gambling with The Ark and the mission itself. And even aside from the lives of everyone aboard, corny as it sounds, we’re literally gambling with the future of humanity itself.”
That was a sobering thought. The colonel sat back in his chair. “Yes ma’am.” After a brief moment, he said, “And I think I’m about to raise the ante even more.”
Again she shook her head slightly. Her brow furrowed. “I’m not sure I follow.”
“I don’t believe Wilson or Schaeffer are really involved. Either one of them.”
“But they were in the holodeck. Caught in the act.”
“Yes ma’am, and their involvement, such as it was, certainly warrants a thorough investigation. But at the moment I don’t think either of them deserve the ultimate punishment.”
The general picked up a pen and tapped the tip of it on her desk. Her gaze never left the colonel’s face. “Okay. I’ll take that under consideration. But that doesn’t really raise the stakes, does it, Frank?” She paused. “So what else?”
“Posey—or Dingle—I believe isn’t the ringleader he made himself out to be.”
She sat up in her chair. “What? Are you sure?”
“Like I said, I’d bet on it. Especially when you consider the higher stakes you mentioned. He just doesn’t have the intelligence for it. He has the will and personality to carry it out, certainly, but not the intelligence to devise the plan in the first place.”
“So who is?”
“I don’t know yet.” He paused. “But I’m betting we’re looking in the wrong place. I think whoever it is is on the ship legitimately.”
“But everyone was screened! Including you and me!”
“Yes ma’am, I’m aware. But psychological testing has always been a major interest of mine. The first thing to know is that the tests aren’t perfect. The human mind is too complex for the tests to be foolproof, though they still catch the vast majority of personality flaws. But down through the ages, one personality type has successfully beaten every test every time. ”
“Okay....”
“No test has ever been devised that will definitively weed out a psychopathic personality.”
“You’re saying we have a psychopath on board?”
The colonel shrugged. “Probably several, not that all of them want to blow us up. Think about it. We really, literally have no way of knowing.”
“Wow.”
“Yes ma’am. And I’m betting one of them is our ringleader.”
“So you think the main guy is someone who was approved to come aboard.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“And you want to stop the DNA tests? Certainly that would save us a lot of time, but—”
“No ma’am, not at all. I believe whoever’s in charge of wanting to sabotage our mission knows we’re conducting the tests, or they’ll know soon. I also believe they see that as a benefit. Whoever it is almost certainly knows we’re chasing our tail, and they probably believe it will buy them some time. So if nothing else, if we keep running the DNA tests, just business as usual, it will put them off their guard.”
“Mmm. I see what you mean. So what do you suggest we do?”
“We’ll keep running the tests, and in the meantime I’ll run a separate, quiet little investigation. I have a few folks I know I can trust, and unless I miss my guess they’d be more than happy to help.”
She studied him for a moment. “You think you know who it is, don’t you?”
“No ma’am, not at all. I do have my suspicions, but I’ll keep those to myself for now if you don’t mind. I don’t want the person or persons I suspect to get even a whiff that either you or I suspect them. In fact, I won’t even reveal their name or names to the folks I enlist to help with the investigation.”
The general spread her palms. “So what do you suggest I do in the meantime?”
The XO grinned. “Right. It isn’t like you’re responsible for a generation ship and all the souls on board, is it? Not to mention all the different sections and machinery and—”
“Okay, okay, I get it.”
“But seriously, with this particular matter, you still have to decide what to do with Dingle and with the other two. For me personally, Dingle should be a slam-dunk, but the other two might take a bit of creative investigation themselves. But then, I’m not the commanding officer.”
She laughed. “And I’m beginning to see why you seem to revel in that fact, Colonel.” Then her smile faded. “Very well. I’ll busy myself with those three. More than likely I’ll go interview them tomorrow.” She pointed her pen at him. “But the instant your suspicions even look like they’re firm, you tell me.”
“Yes ma’am. Believe me, once I know, I’ll be more than happy to pass the name or names of whomever it is along to you. No worries at all.”