Unbounded

Chapter Six: The Flying Mountains of Magenta Sorrow

Mission Time: +392.3 Earth-years

After the spinning tori slid back into their receptacle, Ryder stood still on the dais, staring into the dark medical bay.

"Doctor Tai? Are you there?" he called out. "My scan is done."

A silhouetted figure appeared in the doorway to the laboratory. "Yes, I'm here." Tai entered the bay and walked hurriedly to Ryder. He glanced at the read-out displayed for the scanner. "Yeah, good. You're healthy. You can go." His brows were pinched inwards, and his hair was messy.

Ryder stepped down. "How is the radiation resistance drug going?"

Tai crossed his arms. "I think it should work now. But there's an issue, which I should have known from the beginning. I guess I did know, but I was optimistic about getting around it."

"What is it?"

"Each person must be outside stasis for about seven years before the treatment can reach full efficacy. During stasis, the effects of the medicine would be suspended."

"... But, the ship doesn't have enough food and water to last seven years," Ryder said. "And that's just for the operational crew, let alone everyone else in stasis."

Tai nodded slowly. "Exactly. Right now I'm working on speeding up the course of the treatment, but honestly, right now I don't know how to do that." He looked at the floor a moment. "Well, I should get back to work." Tai returned to the lab.

Ryder left the medical bay and walked quickly along the circumferential corridor, eyes darting to the side whenever he passed the large windows open to busy labs. Command Sector was not yet fully staffed; he glanced at the backs of people facing their consoles, then moved on to the crew cabins. He passed his own door, and then stopped outside Tekoha's. He looked around but saw no one else. He backed quickly into Tekoha's cabin and sealed the door again.

The room was empty. Ryder sat in Tekoha's desk chair and put his hands on his knees. Minutes passed. Then the door was slammed open, and Tekoha entered.

"Kask. Did anyone see you come in here?"

"No, I was careful."

"Good. You never know who else out there could be another Hemi." The door opened again, and this time Ihaia and Ariki entered.

Ryder jumped to his feet. "What the--"

"Relax, Kask. Relax." Tekoha spread his fingers and pushed his hands in a calming motion. "They are upset about what's going on too."

Ryder clenched his jaw and crossed his arms. "And just what do they think is going on?"

"There are things we are not being told," Ihaia said, "which we have a right to know."

"The chain of command seems to be malfunctioning, forcing inappropriate secrecy," Ariki said.

"Yes, and the best evidence we have of that now is something we uncovered at the very end of the previous mission segment," Tekoha said to the two of them, taking a dramatic pause. "There were menhirs on Rock Garden, and possibly other worlds we visited as well. Fai-tsiri must have known this."

"That's outrageous," Ariki said. "Are you certain?"

Tekoha nodded. "Quite." He was silent a moment, letting them mull the implications. "Mr. Kask also found a set of encrypted files which Fai-tsiri would have access to. We don't know if she or someone else created them, but I am working on a crack. Though it will take me some time."

"Then perhaps those files, along with the menhirs, can answer a long upstanding question," Ariki said. "Which is, why were we brought to Rock Garden in the first place? We were lured there under false pretenses--there's no doubt in my mind about that."