The Journey Home, Part 2 (Ch 19)
Chapter 19
When the general exited Interview Room 1, she turned and went into Interview Room 2.
Mr. Schaeffer was seated behind the table, waiting for her. He was looking at the table.
She took a seat, again several feet from the table on the opposite end of the room. When she’d settled in, she smiled. “Hello, Mr. Schaeffer.”
He didn’t lift his head. “Hello, ma’am.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“Yes ma’am, I know.”
“My XO, the guy who was with me in the infirmary the other day, believes you’re ashamed of what you did. He thinks that’s why you didn’t look at us as we were talking to you.”
He said nothing, but continued to stare at the table.
“I think he might be right. I also think that’s why you won’t look at me now.”
He continued to stare at the table.
“Is that right, Mr. Schaeffer? Are you ashamed of what you’ve done?”
He only nodded.
“Mr. Schaeffer, if we’re to continue this conversation, you’re going to have to look at me. Otherwise you’ll make my decision easy in your case. That is not what I want.”
He hesitated, but finally he looked up. “Yes ma’am,” he said. His voice conveyed raw emotion, primarily regret.
“Why are you ashamed, Mr. Schaeffer?”
“Could you—could you please call me Max, ma’am? Mr. Schaeffer was my daddy’s name, and I don’t—” Again he looked at the table.
“You don’t what?”
He continued looking at the table. “I don’t deserve it, ma’am. I mean, he doesn’t deserve for me to have it.”
“Why? And please look at me as we talk.”
He raised his head again. A tear escaped one eye and trickled down his right cheek. He kept his hands palm-down on the table. “I didn’t know, General.”
She studied his face, bore into him with her gaze. “Oh, I think you knew. What was that you said in the infirmary? That we couldn’t stop you? That we’re all going to hell?”
He shook his head, hard. “No ma’am!” He took a breath, apparently to calm himself. The index finger of his right had raised slightly from the table. “I apologize, ma’am, but that ain’t what I said. I—I said you couldn’t stop them. The people who—” He stopped and looked at the table again.
“Look at me, Max.”
He raised his head again.
“Who recruited you? For the mission, I mean?”
His brow furrowed. “The mission, ma’am?” Another tear crept out of his right eye. He made a sound like a wounded animal, lowered his face to near the table, and used the thumb of his right hand to wipe it from his cheek. He touched his lips with that thumb. Then he looked up again and shuddered as if to force himself to stop crying.
“The mission to blow up my ship.”
“Oh.” He paused. “Nobody, ma’am. I mean, nobody said anything about that.”
“Then how did you come to be in FOH Level 3 in the holodeck with Wilson and Posey?”
“I—I didn’t know, ma’am. And neither did Wilson.” He paused.
The general only looked at him.
“Me and Wilson, we were sitting around in my room. We’d got off shift and went to the Bridge Lounge for breakfast and then—”
“Where do you work?”
“Oh, cleanup crew, ma’am. We’re janitors. All three of us.” He shrugged. “And then we were just sitting around talking.”
“In your room? And how many people were there?”
“Yes ma’am, in my room. And it was just me and Buck at first. I’ve got games and stuff I brought up with me. But most of them are two-person games, y’know? So I usually invite Buck. He’s my friend. And we were deciding which one we wanted to play. But I’ve been here almost three years, and Buck’s been here almost that long, so we’ve been through most of them a lot of times.”
“Okay. Continue please. Then what happened?”
“I think we decided we were gonna play Battleship. You know, where each guy tries to guess where the other guy’s ships are and then you try to sink them with these little pegs? So I got up and went to get the game. That’s when Punky came in.”
“Punky?”
“Yes ma’am. That’s Roger Posey. We all call him Punky ‘cause he mostly looks like a street punk. You know, he doesn’t take a shower very often or—”
She nodded. “Go on.”
“So Punky—Posey—came in and said he had a brand-new game nobody’d ever played before, only he needed someone to play it through a couple times so he could iron out any problems. Then I guess he was gonna put it out all over the ship. That’s what he said. He wanted me and Buck’s opinion.”
“Okay. Then what happened?”
“He said we had to come with him. He had the game set up in a big room.” He shrugged. “So we went with him in a lift, and when we stepped out he led us to that holodeck. Only when he opened the door and went in, he stopped. He grabbed a rifle from beside the door and then he told us both to take one too. He said it was part of the game.
“Only when he turned on the holodeck, it looked like the back end of Engineering. The propulsion bulkhead was right there at the end of the room and everything.” He shook his head. “That’s when I thought something must be up. Nobody would be allowed to play a game in Engineering. Especially not if Chief Whaley was around.”
“Go on.”
“That’s about it, I guess. Punky led us to a little box sitting on the floor in the back of the room. He gave me and Buck these little wire things and told us to put them in these little cubes in the bottom of the box. He said we had to be neat about it. Put the wires in the middle of the top and all that.
“Only when I looked in that box, there was a lot of wires, kind’a in a bundle. It looked like it was holding the cubes in place or something, maybe to hold them steady. So I looked up and asked Punky what the wires were for and he said they were for later. Then he said, ‘Just do what I told you’ and it didn’t sound like a game anymore. He sounded serious. Or maybe nervous. And then it was right there by the propulsion room door, so that’s when I thought it might be some kind’a bomb.”
He shrugged again. “So I figured maybe he was gonna try to blow up the engines or something. I wasn’t sure, but I figured when we left and he went somewhere else, I’d talk to someone about it. Maybe Chief Whaley or someone.”
“Why Chief Whaley?”
“I don’t know, ma’am. I don’t know many officers, and that’s where I’m assigned right now, cleaning up Engineering on the third shift.”
“Okay. And then what?”
“That’s when everything came undone. Me and Buck were down on our knees trying to put those little wires where he told us and the door opened and Punky fired his rifle and then he was flat on his back, just like that. I thought maybe his rifle blew up or something.
“I don’t think Buck got it at first. I think he thought it was part of the game. So he tried to bring his rifle up too and I stood up to stop him.” He shrugged again. “And the next thing I knew, we were in the infirmary.”
“I see. And did you and Mr. Wilson—Buck—did the two of you talk at all either in the infirmary or after you were in the brig?”
“No ma’am. I guess neither one of us had anything to say to each other in the infirmary. And after we were in here—I don’t think even the guy in the next cell could hear you unless you were yelling, ma’am. And there was an empty cell between us.”
“All right. Anything else you can tell me about what happened?”
“No ma’am, nothing I can think of.” He hesitated, and then his brow furrowed. “You gonna shoot us out into space, ma’am?”
“I don’t know yet. That’s a decision I’ll have to make for each of you separately.”
He looked at the table. “Yes ma’am. I understand.”
“Do you know anyone other than Punky who you think might want to blow up the ship or otherwise stop our mission?”
He looked up. “No ma’am, as God is my witness. I mean, I know we ain’t supposed to talk about God, but—you know.”
“Yes, Mr. Schaeffer. Believe me, I know.” She paused. “When I leave the interview room, please remain seated and wait for the guard’s instructions, okay?”
“Yes ma’am.” He looked at the table again.
She stood, then looked at him for a moment. “And keep your chin up, Max. If you’ve told me the truth, I think your father would be proud of you.”
He looked up. Tears were welling again. Quietly, he said, “Yes ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.”
She turned, aimed the device and pressed the black button.
The door slid open and she stepped out.