The power had gone out in the barracks.
Not a big deal. Ever since the other world’s Outlanders had arrived, repairs to the broken comms section of V.A.L.L.O. had been in progress, and there were bound to be glitches that came from trying to get everything back up and running. But those glitches still had to be investigated and repaired, and that was the task Daud had taken on while dragging Kate along for the ride.
If she was honest, she was thankful for the reprieve of work duty. Having Yelena around was good, but it also brought a unique pain with it that she was trying hard to ignore. Her mind and heart had been so consumed with Natasha’s disappearance lately that it was hard to keep all roads from leading back to her. Her sister – their sister? – appearing wasn’t helping that, not through any fault of Yelena’s own other than the innate relationship they shared. Finding a little distraction in having a mission, however small, helped.
“Which way is the electrical panel again?” she questioned, turning on the flashlight in her hand to break through the darkness. She truly couldn’t remember; this kind of thing was outside of her typical list of work duties and so wasn’t a priority memory in her brain.
“Just around this corner,” Daud said. He missed the Void-given ability to see in the dark about now. His headlamp did the job well enough, though, and while maintenance of V.A.L.L.O. itself wasn’t his usual duty either, he knew the ship systems well enough. He always liked to know how things worked and be aware of his environment, and that went double when he was one tin can away from an airless void.
When they reached the wall panel, Daud flipped it open easily. The problem, as it turned out, was not hard to diagnose. The problem was also extremely bad news, which left Daud glaring silently at it for a moment as he considered the implications.
“What?” Kate pushed in closer to him as he glared into the wall panel like it had personally offended him. She knew by his lack of words that whatever was wrong was very bad, and he was very unhappy. Once she pushed in front of his shoulder and inspected it herself, her eyes went wide with alarm. “Oh no. So that means–”
“We have a saboteur,” Daud finished for her. The wires were snipped in one easy cut, and it was only the wires that supplied power to the barracks. Whoever did this knew the ship and knew electrics, and they knew the business of stealth well enough to get in, get what they needed done, and get out.
“Strange choice of things to sabotage, though,” Daud continued, still frowning at the electrical panel. “Barracks power…it’s inconvenient, but it doesn’t cause any serious problems. It’s not life support or power to the Forest or anything that affects the engine, and it’s easy to fix. This reads more as a distraction or a cover job than a primary goal.”
Kate nodded. “Makes sense,” she agreed. Something like this was small potatoes compared to the damage that could be caused around here. Anyone with the basest clearance could get into this panel and cut whatever they wanted, but why would they? What purpose did it serve other than to inconvenience people?
“Do we think it’s the newbies?” She hated to suspect any of the other world’s Outlanders of being responsible for this, especially with her own personal attachment, but they were the only change in routine. “Maybe it was just a dumb prank,” she offered, still trying to give the benefit of the doubt if that was the case.
“If it’s a prank, it’s too much of one,” Daud grimly replied. He’d tolerate mild nonsense, but so far their crew had always known where to draw the lines. Damaging a ship system was on the wrong side of those lines.
Kate was right, though; they had a pack of new people aboard who were unknown quantities. One of them could have thought this was funny–or one of them might be up to something more sinister. Or one of their own crew might have snapped. There was no telling without doing some more investigation.
Daud shook off the speculation and reached for his tool box. “Let’s get this repaired, and then I’ll report it to the captain.”
“Here.” Kate wasn’t going to be able to do much in the way of assisting the repair. This was a one-man job as it was, and the space at the panel was only big enough for that one. But she pulled back the door and stood off to the side, shining her light in so he could see better what he was doing. “Maybe we should padlock it when you’re done, too, just in case?”
Daud considered the idea as he stripped off some insulation to give himself room to solder the wires back together. (It wasn’t exactly solder–this world had cleaner, easier, and more efficient means of repair than the world Daud came from. It was doing a soldering iron’s job, though, so that was how Daud thought of it.)
“I don’t think we’re likely to see the same spot attacked again, but extra caution rarely hurts,” he said. “Extra security on other access points might be a good idea, too–in case this was a test run for someone’s larger operation.”
“Yeah, that’s smart. We’ll suggest it to command,” Kate agreed. He was probably right – as usual, and she meant that fondly – but none of this was sitting right. It made her feel unsettled when she felt, for the most part, she knew most of the citizens of V.A.L.L.O.; she didn’t think any of them would act like this. But she didn’t want to think badly of the new Outlanders, either.
“What do you think someone who pulled this off could really be planning?” she asked Daud. “If this is a cover job, what could they be covering? It can’t be anything good.”
“Definitely not anything good,” Daud agreed. “My first thought is that we’ll get the lights back on in the barracks and find a body. Could also be that a week from now, some other, more important power gets cut. Or,” he added as the last bit of wire connected, “it could be that this is someone practicing their ability to sneak around the ship, and what they’re actually up to is nothing really connected to this. But of course all that’s a paranoid old assassin talking.”
“A paranoid old assassin who’s right more often than he’s wrong,” Kate pointed out. That was part of what unsettled her. Daud had a knack for knowing when bad shit was going on. He could call it paranoia, but she’d rarely seen his paranoia end up unwarranted. “But fingers crossed there’s no bodies. I don’t think I’m emotionally prepared for that.”
“Decent people generally aren’t,” Daud replied. He knelt to put the tools back in the box and ignored the twinge in his knee as he stood back up. One of these days he needed to let those future doctors see what they could do about replacing the old parts. “Come on, let’s flip that breaker back on and see if we have lights.”
Obediently, Kate did as Daud instructed and reached into the panel to flip the breaker. She broke into a grin when the lights flickered a few times and then came full back to life. It was a relief to know the people that lived here wouldn’t be plunged into unwanted darkness – living in space was a dark enough experience all on its own.
She turned off her flashlight, tucked it into her pocket, and said, “Now I guess we check for bodies? Or get snacks? Personally, I vote for snacks.”
“First, we walk through and make sure the lights are on in all the pods,” Daud said, then paused. “And check for bodies.”
He devoutly hoped for no bodies. He’d seen enough bodies for several lifetimes, and V.A.L.L.O. had thus far been blessedly free of that sort of problem. With any luck, this was just theft or someone taking their idea of mischief too far. Not that Daud believed in luck, but maybe this would be the time.
Kate grumbled but nodded her assent, pushing the panel door closed before they started back down the now-relit corridors. She reached for the stun baton that came standard-issued for patrol, still holstered at her hip. It wasn’t her bow – that was only used recreationally these days – but it would hopefully do the job if this was covering some kind of attack and there was an attacker to apprehend.
“You owe me a double chocolate chunk after this, Dad.”