Exhausted and sweaty, Lt. Commander Katherine Leung climbed up the portside rear stairs from deck one to main deck to find Captain Teach waiting for her. Equally exhausted was any possibility that Lt. Neil Lamont remained on the ship. The fourth complete search of Pathfinder was finished and there was no longer any room for doubt. Lamont was gone.

"Well, did you find anything?" Teach wanted to know.

"No, Captain," Leung responded, amazed at her own ability to find patience enough for courtesy at this ungodly hour. With only two available rated command officers, she and Teach had been standing watch and watch on the bridge for the last three days. Of course, that did not excuse her from maintaining command of the engineering section, a full-time responsibility by itself, with the damaged and locked systems of the ship that must still be rebuilt.

Leung's mostly black hair, normally worn clipped up out of the way, had come loose and tickled her neck annoyingly. Her round face was pale from lack of sleep. The ageless look that was her Asian heritage seemed to have lost its hold on her features, and she looked every one of her 74 years.

"I think we are going to have to face the reality that he is no longer among us, sir," she told him. She fervently hoped that he would indeed accept that and allow her to get some sleep before she was due on the bridge in three hours.

That thought gave her pause. Why is he so insistent that I remain on the bridge during my watch when he is down here in the engineering section looking for a report during his? She knew better than to question him on it, though. He seldom had rational or consistent explanations for his actions when she did. "Command Prerogative" was his favorite justification of late.

Not that it truly made any difference whether there was a bridge watch or not. If there were a planetoid directly in their path, they were powerless to move the ship to avoid it. And equally powerless to detect its existence to know they needed to move. What a filthy, bloody, flaming, vomitous mess, she thought.

Certainty could be heard in Leung's voice during her pronouncement of Lamont's unknown whereabouts, and Teach could see no evasiveness in her somewhat bloodshot hazel eyes. It was a puzzle to him what could possibly have become of the wayward lieutenant, and he did not enjoy having unsolved disappearances to deal with. He was in command, and he should know what Lamont's fate was. If the man was dead, he could deal with that, but not knowing was…disconcerting. A grim frown grew, partially obscured by Teach's bushy beard.

"He must be dead," Leung was saying now. "He is not on the ship anywhere, and he was not on Vanguard, either. If he were alive, we'd know where he is." She stood waiting for some response from Teach; hopefully a dismissal so she could collapse into bed.

None seemed forthcoming. Teach continued to frown, his eyes unfocussed while he gnawed on the enigma in his mind.

This is another example of Brighton's plans within plans, the heavyset man thought. He knew something was coming, or he wouldn't have had the lifeboats rigged to launch. He must have already gotten to Lamont before I captured him on the bridge.

Distracted as he was, he took no notice of Leung's impatience to depart. For her part, she was practically dead on her feet already, her desire to maintain an amicable relationship with the prickly commanding officer the only thing keeping her from simply walking directly back to her quarters. Lamont's fate was already decided, and in the larger scheme, there were too many things that needed doing to spend more effort trying to figure out what it had been.

When she caught her eyes beginning to droop, she started a bit, but Teach was still looking nowhere in particular and didn't notice. She tried to bring him back to the here and now, hoping to end this as quickly as possible.

"Orders, sir?" she prompted.

"Huh?"

"Do you have any orders for me, sir, or may I be dismissed?"

"I was just thinking about what must have happened to Lamont," Teach responded distractedly. "If Brighton was on to us, just before the liberation of Pathfinder, he must have sent someone else to get Lamont for him. He never left the bridge during that time. I'll bet it was Chowdhury," he finished with an involuntary shiver.

"Likely true, sir," she responded, though in truth, she didn't care in the slightest to know how the arrogant twip had met his end. All she cared about now was finding the most efficient means of dealing with the mess his disappearance had left them.

"Repairs should be our first priority, Captain," she continued, moving back to a productive topic. "Without override access to the locked down systems, we're facing a major delay to our plans. The sooner we can establish an independent control system, the sooner we can get things back on track. I have submitted a written summary to you, but I haven't seen it since. Have you had a chance to review and approve my schedule?"

The very fact that she had submitted her proposal in writing was testament to how fouled up the ship was. She'd only found paper and pencils by accident while going through the inventory case by case. Without any sort of computer access, there was no inventory listing, no way to submit an electronic proposal to the commanding officer, and especially no ship's controls.

That had to change. It was time to drop the Lamont issue and move on to the next step. Teach seemed to be having difficulty with that concept.

"Maybe someone else did him in, and there is still a murderer at large on the ship," he said now. "The rest of the crew could still be in danger. I'm going to begin a full-scale investigation tonight!" He stroked the black bristles on his chin while thinking about how this investigation should be organized.

Leung really wanted nothing more than to go to bed just then, the idea of an investigation adding more fatigue to an already full load. If she could just get Teach to give her a direct answer so she could get to it.

"If you say so, but it would seem certain that the person or persons responsible are no longer on the ship. You may use up a lot of man-hours looking for information that can't be found anymore."

That topic closed for now, she tried to bring Teach back to more important subjects. "Now, in the matter of replacing our command computer, I'd like your permission to take the medical database system and use it. Since it is not connected to any other system, it was unaffected by the lockout. We do have a replacement command system in stores, but it is completely disassembled and I would need two weeks just to put all the pieces together and test it. Normally, it makes sense to keep replacement parts on hand, since it's rare to need a whole command and control system replaced. In our case, though, assembly of the dedicated unit will be slower than converting the already working system to handle new functions. Would that be all right with you, Captain?" she finished, again amazed at her own display of patience. The self-promoted captain required a certain level of deference in his subordinates' speech, but Leung was too tired to care much what he wanted.

Teach watched her intently as she made her request. He paused a few moments, then nodded and said, "Did Lamont seem overly upset the last time you saw him? I mean, more than normal? He was agitated, sure, but that was hardly an uncommon state for him. I was just wondering if possibly he took his own life. Do you think that likely?"

"Will you shut up about that conceited snot? We'd be better off without him if we had his codes!" Her voice reverberated off the unadorned metal walls of the stairwell. All restraint was gone now, her nerves frayed past the breaking point. A small part of her recognized that there would be a price to pay for her outburst, but that part was just as tired as the rest of her and went unheeded.

"Can't you get it through your thick skull that Lamont is gone and we have other priorities to deal with? We can't even maneuver this thrice-cursed ship! If you can't give me a simple yes or no when I make proposals for getting us out of this mess, then just stay out of my way and let me do my job!"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew she had put her foot in it. The enormity of her misstep turned her red-hot rage into an icy chill at once. The one thing she dared not criticize about Teach was his ability to lead. Teach's eyes narrowed and she gave up on the idea of sleep tonight. Here comes a tongue lashing, followed by some form of punishment, she thought. She would have been flabbergasted to know the thoughts that were passing behind the intensely focused eyes, however.

Leung killed Lamont, Teach thought. I don't know why she should want to, but look at how unstable her behavior is. The last time I saw Neil, he left my quarters in a huff and Leung left right after, saying that she would try to talk to him. She must have lost control just like now and killed him for no reason. I can't trust her.

Other evidence came to mind. Lamont's body had never been found, but Leung had been responsible for leading every search through the ship. Throughout the entirety of the current discussion, talking about Lamont had made Leung nervous. He thought about her constantly changing the subject away from that topic. I'd better give her what she wants at the moment, but guard my own back from now on, he decided.

"I know I have been pushing you hard these last few days, Kate, so I'll let that pass tonight," Teach said in, if not a pleasant tone, at least a mild one. Leung, tensed and expecting the worst, slowly allowed her shoulders to relax.

"Thank you, sir, and I apologize. I won't let it happen again."

"I understand, Kate. We'll speak no more of it." He smiled. "As for orders, I'd like you to focus on replacing the command computer, by rebuild or replacement, whatever you think is best. I'll see what I can do about replacing the astrogation data that we're going to need."

The engineer was completely caught off guard, but she kept her face neutral so as not to give further offense. Finally some useful directions out of him, she thought. Maybe I should yell at him more often. No, she concluded, that innocent smile is harder to take than his one-track mind.

"Time enough for that tomorrow, though. You should turn in," he finished.

"Thank you, sir, I believe I will."

He motioned for her to precede him into the main engineering section, which she did. Five members of the crew from third watch were busy at various tasks, but mostly trying not to look at her. She could just imagine the scuttlebutt that would be making the rounds tomorrow. Fortunately, she now had permission to sleep, and she was sure that whatever problems ensued from crewmen witnessing a public argument from the two top officers, they would look much smaller in the morning.

A commotion in engineering on her way through kept her again from heading straight to bed.

"McGough, what did you do?" Young, the engineering lead on this shift, loudly wanted to know. Leung turned in time to see McGough's curly-haired and grease-stained head emerging from under the power converter console.

"What do you mean?" Nick McGough sounded as tired and frustrated as Leung felt, but his shouted reply was the equal in volume to Young's.

"The cooling monitor station is dead. You were the last one working here, so what did you do?"

McGough pulled himself up off the floor and took the three steps he needed to cross from one work area to the other. "I haven't been over there for an hour, at least. Don't look at me." Upon arriving at the station, he pressed a few keys experimentally to try to wake the system. His actions elicited no response. There was no on/off switch for the monitor, since it was designed to function constantly, so he resumed his now accustomed position on the floor to check the wire traces for a loose power connection. As soon as he was horizontal, he let out a startled shout. "What the blazes?"

Teach and Leung had halted their progress across the engineering space when they heard Young's distress, and they were right next to McGough when his disbelieving outburst escaped him. "What is it, Crewman?" Leung asked.

McGough peeked out to see his department commander awaiting the bad news, and he would have sighed in dismay if the shock of seeing the captain there as well had not brought him instantly to his feet saluting. He wondered idly why no one had called out the 'Captain on deck" warning when he had entered.

Teach returned the salute brusquely and demanded, "Well, we're waiting for your report, Crewman."

The hapless man gulped, wishing abstractly that the money Leung had offered had been just a little less enticing. He knew exactly what was going to happen when he answered the question the captain had posed, yet he had no alternatives to answering. Nothing for it but to do so as quickly as possible. Delaying the bad news would only make it worse.

"Captain, Commander, this station has been intentionally disabled by person or persons unknown at some time in the last hour." There. He had said it, and hopefully in such a way that none of the blame would fall on him. Young had already singled him out as the last one working there. He just hoped that either the captain would not remember, or else that he was able to see his surprise was genuine. He remained stiffly at attention, and took advantage of the silver lining that with both commanding officers in front of him, he could direct his gaze at the wall in the distance between them, and didn't have to look at either of them directly.

His line of sight was not far enough from Teach, though, that he couldn't still see the explosion coming. The commanding officer's face flushed, making the black beard more pronounced, and his eyes narrowed with menace. "What do you mean, McGough?" His voice was not the raging sandblaster Nick was prepared to face, and the unexpectedly soft words caught him off guard. He was a few moments responding, and realized immediately that that, too, did not put him in a favorable light just then.

"See for yourself, sir. Someone has literally ripped out half of the power and data feeds," McGough said while stepping out of the way so the two could take him up on the offer.

Nick hadn't expected that they really would, but Leung lay down and rolled onto her back, looking upward at the mangled ruin that wasn't visible from eye level. She found everything as McGough had described it. Someone had torn out a good portion of the wires and data leads of the system, including the main power input. Someone strong might have done it all at once by yanking out two handfuls. Then again, another person could have done it by taking a little more time. Not a smart idea, though. Pulling the power line would have been enough to disable the monitor. The more that was done after that would have increased the chance of discovery with not much in the way of gain. Probably, they were looking for someone strong enough to have done it all at once, she decided.

She pulled herself out from under the machine and stood. "The damage is definitely deliberate," she reported. "It could have been anyone on duty here, though I may be able to rule out quite a few with a little more investigation."

"There are also the work crews that have been in and out all shift," McGough added helpfully.

"I want to know who did this!" Teach yelled. He turned to face the entire engineering compartment. Everyone on duty had gathered around to see what was going on, and all eyes were on the raging captain.

"Who did this? Tell me now!"

Nervous glances were fired back and forth among the group, but no one spoke. The lack of results infuriated Teach even further. "I gave an order, and I expect it to be obeyed! Tell me who damaged this system, or there will be unpleasant consequences for all of you!"

Leung moved closer to avoid anyone overhearing her and tried to calm the man down. "Captain, if you'd allow me to do my own checking, I might--"

"Belay that!" he bellowed. "I will teach these miscreants the consequences of disobedience!"

Everyone in the area had gathered by then, and the glances had changed from nervous to suspicious, and in some cases accusatory. Still, no one uttered a word. Teach grew visibly more angry with each passing moment of silence. His jaw muscles clenched beneath his ebony whiskers. The steely gaze he leveled at each person grew more and more heated.

"Very well," he finally announced. His voice was not loud, but still held unmistakable scorn. "You are all assigned double shifts for ten days. Also, half rations for the same period. If, at the end of that time, I have not learned the name of the responsible party, further punishment may be warranted."

Amber Sullivan's eyes had gotten bigger with each sentence. When the captain announced that perhaps more would be added later, she began crying.

"That is enough of that!" Teach declared. "Back to work now, all of you."

Sullivan shuffled off with the others, but her shoulders were shaking and audible sobs continued to escape her. Teach was disgusted at the display and moved off hurriedly toward the exit into the boat bay. Leung did not catch up until he was halfway across the expansive bay. She wanted to try to mitigate the severity of the assigned discipline by pointing out the disastrous effect it would have on morale. If she could only get him to see reason, she thought.

She never got a chance, as Teach spoke first when she approached.

"We need to do something about Aichele," he stated.

The statement was kilometers from where her thoughts were, and she couldn't think of any response to it immediately. After a moment she asked, "What did you have in mind?" She thought this was sufficiently bland that it might give her some clues as to what the topic of conversation was without letting on that she was lost. Hopefully, she could quickly deal with whatever this problem was and move the conversation back to the crew's punishment.

"That Marine uniform he always has on, it's…disconcerting. I want him in Navy undress the next time I see him."

"I see," Leung replied. It seemed a frivolous item to be worried about just then, but one that was easily accomplished. Still, there was one detail about it that she should clear up before moving back to the punishment issue. "And at what rank should we transfer him from one service to the other, sir?"

"Just transfer him at his current grade," he directed absently.

By this time, they had reached the hatch to Leung's quarters. Both stopped, expecting the remainder of the conversation to be brief.

"Yes, sir. But, if I might point out, Gunnery Sergeant Aichele is grade eight, enlisted, which would correspond to the naval rank of chief petty officer."

"Yes. So?"

"That's the same rank held by CPO Young," she hinted.

"And?"

Leung was perplexed that she should have to spell this out for him. The man had been the executive officer, responsible for everything to do with personnel, for most of the last two years. Maybe he was just tired, as she was.

"Aichele has more time in grade than Young, which would mean that if we take him out of the Marines, where he is not in the chain of command, and place him in the Navy, he would be taking on the position of Bosun of the Ship. If that's what you had in mind, sir, that's fine with me," she lied smoothly, "but I'm not so certain about where his loyalties truly lie. He may just have wanted to take the easy way out."

"Hmm," Teach commented sagely, "I hadn't considered that. I think he did opt for the easy way out, but that doesn't make him disloyal. Besides, now that he's made his choice, it's in his own best interest to work with us. He's old enough that he was probably having the same thoughts about a meager retirement that you'd had. Still…giving him a position of authority may be a bit premature. Just make him a crewman instead, until he proves himself."

"Very well, sir. So you want me to name Young as the Bosun?"

"No, we don't need a Bosun. We'll all be turning this ship over for a profit in a couple of weeks. No need to bother about that."

Leung's anger started to rise, though she was trying hard to remain patient. "Then why does it matter what-"

"Are you questioning my orders!" Teach demanded with equal heat.

She straightened without thinking. "No, sir."

"Good. Oh, I did have one other item I'd like you to handle for me," Teach said in an abruptly genial tone.

"Sir?"

"I want you to reprogram Pathfinder's ZFlash beacon with dummy information to report our destruction and launch it, if you would. Also, change the guidance system so that it passes A3 before it looks to orbit a planet, so that when it is found, Warner will start looking in the wrong place."

Leung couldn't help but grin as she thought of it. "Yes, sir," she said with some enthusiasm. "Smart thinking, Captain."

Her exhaustion suddenly reasserted itself with a vengeance and she couldn't keep herself from yawning. Gone from her memory, at least for the moment, was her desire to broach the subject of crew discipline. Teach left her there before taking the few additional steps needed to bring him to the bridge hatch. He raised his hand to enter the unlock sequence but froze before beginning. He could feel himself being watched from somewhere. His neck hairs tried to push his tunic collar away.

He spun to face his attacker, but empty corridors in three directions were all that met his fevered eyes.