Unbounded

Chapter Eight: Fogstill

Mission Time: +537.2 Earth-years

Ryder was the first to enter Tai's cabin, and he locked the door after Ariki and Tekoha entered. One entire wall was appropriated for a false window. Tai sat on a chair in the center of the room. Wrapped in a thick robe and holding a mug of steaming liquid, his slouching form was framed by a white disk in the projected vista.

Ryder drew closer and saw the disk was covered in clouds, reflecting sunlight; only a few dark patches indicated breaks where light was allowed to pass more deeply.

"What are you doing?" Ryder said. "People need their post-stasis exams." The entire cabin smelled of coffee.

"I configured the auto-nurse to handle that," Tai said. "I'm not fit to be a doctor anymore."

"What? Why not?"

"I violated my oath." Ryder looked at the others, but they remained silent. He turned back to Tai, who seemed very relaxed. His eyelids drooped, and he stared at the image of the planet without blinking. "I should go back into stasis for the remainder of the mission," Tai continued. "There are other doctors who could be revivicated to replace me."

"Look, no one else knows what happened, except the three of us," Tekoha said. "It will take them a while to realize Jun is missing."

"And Mbali will probably put all of us out the airlock when she finds out," Tai said.

They stood in silence for a moment and looked at each other. Ryder moved to the other side of Tai's chair. "Doctor, you should not blame yourself for Jun's death. The hostile vessel seemed intent on destroying one of our skiffs--if it hadn't been Jun, it would have been Anaru."

"Jun was there because of me. And I didn't even realize until I came out of stasis this morning that I'm also responsible for Tangaroa--if I had not foolishly run towards the Kea, he wouldn't have gone out to help me. But, for his kind-hearted effort, he was slaughtered."

"I don't think you can say that," Ariki said. "The aliens were using some powerful laser weaponry--they could just have easily targeted me or Zhao or anyone else farther away. I know it seemed like they hit Tangaroa because he was fleeing, but you can't draw that inference with any certainty."

"And don't forget you probably saved fifteen lives in this process," Ryder said.

"Probably?" Tai said. "I don't know about that. It has been over ninety years since we left--I have difficulty picturing what a settlement would be like now. When they were revivicated, they must have been very confused. They probably saw the column of smoke--they would have walked to it and found a melted skiff, with nothing to salvage. Maybe they found Tangaroa's remains and gave him a burial. Or maybe not. The shuriken might have destroyed their pods before they could ever be revivicated."

"The shuriken didn't go near the pods," Ariki said. "Moments after we lifted off, it did too, and left the atmosphere."

"But how do you know there wasn't another ship?" Tai asked.

"We've seen only one," Ariki said, "--the same one--for half a millennium. Wouldn't we have seen others by now if they were out there?"

Tai shrugged.

"Uh, I think we should mention something else," Tekoha said. "The crew are not going to want to shut down Fai-tsiri after what she did on Teal Grip. You know I have always been an advocate of replacing Mbali, and you have to admit, that is looking like the more viable option now."

"I agree," Ariki said. "I think so would Ihaia and Anaru. How about you two?"

Tai nodded. "Yes, I now have trouble believing Fai-tsiri ordered Hemi's execution. It looks like it was Mbali acting on her own--and if that's the case, then we've let her stay in her position for way too long."