Promises Made by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Format: epub
Published: 2010-02-13T07:24:31+00:00

Chapter Six

I sat in the Promise’s brig and contemplated that here, as well as in the other parts of the ship that I’d seen, the accommodations were pretty nice. It was, in fact, the nicest cell I’d ever been in.

Not that I’d spent very much time in a brig--just once when I’d managed to totally piss off my captain and spent a night there for insubordination. Yes, it had been over the bandage rolls, when I’d said something unwise after he’d accused me of selling the missing ones, and I’d compared his brain to that of a donkey.

Which was a bit insulting to the donkey as I now realized.

The Hope’s brig was cold and the bed hard, but here I was comfortably warm, and the soft bunk I sat on even had clean sheets, a pillow, and a fluffy blanket.

Unfortunately the Promise’s brig still had bars, and in that it was just like the brig of the Hope.

At least I had company. Bethan sat in a chair outside my cell. “We need to know what happened to your men. One we found.” She hesitated. “He apparently wasn’t able to escape the blast, and we found his body, identifiable by his uniform.”

I flinched at that. I hadn’t realized anyone had been actually killed, much less one of the men who’d been with me. For a moment I wondered which one it was, Anders or Brant. “What happened to the other man?”

“The other one is still on our ship somewhere. What orders did you give them?”

“Orders?” I tried not to laugh. “The only orders I gave were to load the shuttle with supplies, and they didn’t do that. I’m afraid I wasn’t the one in charge of this misadventure.”

Bethan frowned. “A man is dead and we have twenty crewmembers injured, Lieutenant Masters, some severely as a result of this ‘misadventure’ as you put it.”

“And many of them are alive because I helped them, Chief Bethan!” I took a deep breath and tried to maintain my calm. “I assure you I was not aware that my ship had been booby-trapped. I’m not even sure that the crewmen with me knew. After all, one of them is dead.”

And one was alive, which was suspicious. They should have been together, and I wondered if the one killed had died because of the blast or had been dead ahead of time. “As far as I know, this was one of my asshole captain’s bright ideas. The bomb on board could have been armed and set to detonate after a period of time.”

“Why wouldn’t he tell you or the others? He wouldn’t endanger his own people.”

Now I did laugh. “I’m afraid you don’t know my captain.”

A crewman came in and whispered something to Bethan and she rose. “I’ll be back in a little while.”

“Take your time. I’m not going anywhere,” I said ruefully.

A few moments later another visitor entered the room and stood outside my bars. Jeffrey watched me through the bars, an uncertain look on the part of his face I could see around the respirator mask.

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