“Not according to Interstel records. While none of them have been examined due to the backlog of planets from the secondary survey teams, I have taken the liberty of sending them to your terminal.” Vesor looked at him carefully. “As you can see, three of the planets you visited were given tentative approval for colonization.”

  The captain booted the file up quickly, and then read the data with an expression that moved from disbelief to concern. When he looked up at them, his expression was taut. “You have to believe that I would never do something like this.”

  Josiah watched the captain carefully, attempting to see any attempt at deception. The money that Interstel paid for colonizable planets was sizable, but so were the penalties for not following procedure or providing an unsuitable planet in bad faith. Still, if he were going with his gut, he would say that the captain was sincere.

  Apparently, his superior agreed. “If that is the case, then someone on your crew is to blame. Either way, I believe that there is value in sending you back, and having you report your findings to me.”

  The captain watched her through narrowed eyes, clearly considering how far he could push the situation. Being the elite of the Interstel system, the captains of the exploration ships were supposed to be the best of the best, the pinnacle of what the races of the galaxy could achieve. They were allowed the greatest leeway in accomplishing their mission, and something like this could rock them to their very core.

  The examiner was the immovable object to their irresistible force. While the shipmasters had great leeway as to how they achieved their objectives, they received their ships and their mandates from Interstel. If one of them was deemed unworthy of the honor, there would be dozens who would be able to step in without the slightest hesitation.

  After a moment, the captain considered the situation, and then gave her an appraising glance. "All right, Examiner.... what did you have in mind?"

  “From the information that was provided to me, you have recently completed a major refit, upgrading both your weapons suite and your shielding to Level Three, a respectable upgrade from the standard Interstel package, as well as a full upgrade to your sensor suite. I have no doubt that you would be able to get a full analysis of the planet in question, and take on any threat that might approach.”

  The captain did not reply, but she could see that she had scored a hit. The Redoubtable had been badly damaged in the conflict with an unknown ship on a previous mission. They had managed to damage the attacking vessel when it entered laser range and drive it off for long enough for them to escape, but it had been a close thing. That had been with the standard, Level One defensive package of shields and weapons that all exploration vessels had the option of purchasing before they left the Starport. Facing a heavily armed Interstel vessel nearly three times as powerful would not be something an opponent would attempt lightly.

  "Assuming that you are correct..." the captain continued, "there is still the fact that we have already examined that system. I am currently planning to map out the next sector..."

  "As I had stated, my department will generously compensate you for the temporary inconvenience," the examiner interjected, and that seemed to stop him cold, as she saw the avarice flicker in his eyes. Despite the lucrative nature of interstellar exploration, space was vast, and many worlds that they visited were not worth the Endurium it took to get them there. It was one of the reasons that Interstel had chosen the subsidized model of colonization and exploration anyway, allowing them to minimize the risks to their own interests. If Interstel was willing to cover his costs and expenses, plus would still reward him for whatever they found...

  "You will cover all reasonable expenses, regardless of what I find?"

  Vesor nodded. "As well as the potential for a bonus, should the data we gather be helpful in eliminating the threat to our system."

  The captain nodded slowly. “That should be acceptable.”

  "I will also require my aide, Josiah, to accompany you."

  The captain shook his head. "Unacceptable. We are not a passenger liner..."

  "You have taken supercargo before," Vesor replied smoothly, once again making him blanche from the knowledge she possessed of his previous dealings. "Not to mention, it is clear that I need someone I trust on board, who is completely unimpeachable and independent of your crew. As I mentioned, I am authorized to provide a sizable bonus for a successful mission, if he feels, in his sole capacity, that it is earned."

  For a long moment, the captain’s sense of avarice warred with his hesitation of taking on a passenger, but something in her expression must have convinced him, as he gave a shallow nod. "How quickly will he be ready to depart?"

  Josiah spoke for the first time. "My luggage is in the airlock. I will be able to depart immediately.”

  “Good,” The captain replied, although it was clear he did not mean it. “Space waits for no one.”

  In point of fact, it took several hours to get the crew back on board and everything stowed away. While a few of the crew members were a bit annoyed that they had been called back from the dock early, the rumor of a major payday was enough to get them back and ready to work.

  Josiah quietly wondered just how much the captain had told his crew while he was out of earshot. All crews were tight-knit affairs, and despite the fact that the senior examiner had warned him not to tell anyone of his real purpose in being there, Josiah somehow doubted that the captain would keep such a thing from his crew.

  Regardless, Josiah knew he had a job to do, and he set to it with gusto. The first thing Josiah did was to take a private tour of the ship, following the far more abbreviated tour that he had been given by the captain while they waited for the crew to embark. Josiah had already studied the schematics for the vessel, and had been on others as a visitor when picking up artifacts, so he had a general knowledge of how to get around.

  Still, with the situation he was in, Josiah was fairly sure that he would have to know his way backwards and forwards, and he devoted himself to the task. Avoiding the personal quarters of the crew members, knowing that they would not appreciate such nosiness from an outsider, Josiah toured the lander bay, the defensive stations, the recreation room, and the various public spaces devoted to the health and welfare of the crew, and then stopped into Engineering.

  The engineer was a burly, heavyset man by the name of Riley Kildare. Kildare wore a grey ship's jumpsuit with the Redoubtable patch upon the arm, and he watched Josiah cautiously as he came into the engineer’s domain. From what he had read in his file, Kildare was a devout Endurist, having joined the crew to ensure that they remained focused on seeking out the rare element that helped to push humanity out to the stars.

  "May I help you with something, sir?" Kildare asked, moving towards him, carefully maneuvering to ensure that he did not go deeper into the Engineering bay. "Engineering is a restricted area...”

  "Under most circumstances, you would be completely right, Chief." Josiah replied smoothly, with an attempt at a confident air. "Unfortunately, these are anything but normal circumstances. The captain has given me full authority to go throughout the ship."

  From the glum expression on his face, the chief engineer knew that all too well, and knew that his attempt to try to get the intruder to leave had failed. Giving a glum nod of acceptance, Kildare stood, watching the examiner carefully. To his surprise, Josiah turned to face him instead of going deeper into the bay. "How long have you been on the Redoubtable, Mr. Kildare?"

  "About six months," the man replied carefully. "The captain brought me on to replace his previous engineer, who had taken a posting on another ship.”

  "Oh?" Josiah asked. “Where did he go?”

  "Transferred to the Discover. Our search pattern was taking us a little close to Thrynn space, and they do not like Elowan. Everyone thought that this was just a better fit. Discover already had some Elowan, so they would not be going on that route anyway. The captain put out an open call and got me."

  Josiah nodded, having read as much in his profile. As far as the captain was concerned, the hulking engineer did his job right, and that was all that mattered. Not wanting to take up too much of the other man’s time, Josiah thanked him, then continued on his tour.

  Having completed his conversation with the chief engineer, Josiah moved onwards towards the bow of the ship. Traversing the main corridor, she only saw the android crewmember, MOTO, who was cleaning up a spill that had apparently come from a loose pipe. The android gave him a surprisingly Human nod as he stopped to speak to him.

  "Good afternoon, MOTO. How are you today?"

  "Seeing as the date has little relevance outside of a standard frame of reference, I am doing well. How are you, Examiner?"

  "As good as can be expected," Josiah replied, hopefully surprising the android with his honesty. "How long have you been aboard, MOTO?"

  "Since 15-2-4618. While I was originally brought on board to supplement our engineering staff, I was transferred to cover the post of a crewmember who was wounded and required medical assistance in excess of what could be provided on ship. The captain was good enough to ensure that the crewmember was given the best of care, and provided a stipend for his continued recuperation.”

  Josiah nodded, having read the report on the situation MOTO was alluding to. While on a planetary survey, the ship’s science officer had been attacked by a particularly vicious species of superheated fungus, and had been badly scalded. "That must have cost a pretty penny."

  "I cannot comment upon the financial breakdown for the expedition, but I certainly can confirm that it was not a lucrative experience for the crew. From the public messages that have been received for the crew as a whole, it is clear that the former crew member is in good health and doing well."

  Josiah was about to ask more, but a single tone sounded throughout the ship, and the captain’s voice came out loud and clear. “All hands to transit stations, we are departing Spacedock.”

  MOTO clearly was prepared. “I must attend to the bridge, but you should head over to your stateroom. We will be jumping out of the system as soon as we are at a safe distance.”

  Josiah nodded, his heart already pounding over the knowledge that he was about to take his first out-system jump. It had been something he had been dreaming of since he was a child…

  As long as it did not kill him in the process.

  The first night, once they had left the Starport, wound up being the hardest. There were hundreds of small details that needed to be attended to as they prepared to pull away from the station, and made to jump to their first target. It lent itself to a certain air of excitement, and he felt himself being swept up into the energy of the ship and its crew as they prepared to leap out into the unknown. In the immediate aftermath of departure everything was a flurry of activity, and Josiah merely watched from his place in the central galley, as the crew moved purposefully from task to task with the skill borne of long familiarity.

  When it finally occurred, the jump did provide a small bit of a thrill, and Josiah had been allowed by the captain to watch the event from the bridge. It had proven to be everything he could have asked for and more, despite the fact that his excitement must have seemed very provincial to the others.

  Everything quickly died down into a sort of routine, however. As was traditional, they had jumped to the outer limit of the system, to give themselves maximum room to maneuver if there was a hostile force in the outer system, and opened up their options if there were other threats further in. When they were not attacked as quickly as they arrived, some of the energy of the transit seemed to bleed off into space. Since they had already surveyed this system once before, they could afford to move steadily into the system without conducting some of the more extensive outer-system surveys a first arrival would have entailed. Due to the lateness of the hour, the captain informed them that they would take the slow way in, ensuring that they were following proper procedure while re-examining the system.

  While they moved into the system, under the watchful photoreceptors of MOTO, Captain Russell graciously invited Josiah to dine with the senior officers. They made their way back to the galley for a simple but delicious meal, leaving the android in command on the bridge. Aside from Kildare, there was Salynn T’thiessess, the Thrynn communications officer, Xixptrixx, the Velox navigator, Dr. Vanessa Swatton, and the captain himself. Despite the cautious reception he received from the other members of the crew, the captain went out of his way to try to include him in the conversation, telling stories of some of his other explorations. However, Josiah could not shake the feeling of being an outsider in the tight-knit crew.

  Once the meal ended, he was left alone at the central table as the others went upon their duties. The captain went off to check on MOTO before turning in, to allow him to be ready for the expedition the next day. The survey of the other two planets before their target would be quick, and he wanted to be ready for the expedition. Kildare went back down to his Engineering bay to ensure all was well, and the Thrynn science officer, Salynn, prepared for his own short shift assisting MOTO on the bridge, before switching off with his relief in a couple of hours. The doctor did not bother to explain where she was going, just leaving the table wordlessly with a curt nod of dismissal that seemed to surprise no one.

  Once everyone had left, Josiah took one of the acceleration couches in the corner, and began reading through their biographies again, hoping to get a better idea of those he was traveling with. The captain's dossier revealed little he did not know, and MOTO was a fairly standard automaton, but the others proved quite interesting.

  The career of Doctor Vanessa Swatton was... colorful, to say the least. One would not know it to look at her, but she had the longest Interstel service record of the crew, having worked on four other interstellar vessels during her tenure. Swatton had transferred over following the retirement of the last medical officer, but the profile became even more interesting if you read between the lines: While the service dates had been carefully adjusted by month, leaving nothing strange to a cursory examination, a focus upon the exact dates showed that she had been released from her previous ship three weeks before, with similar gaps existing from her other transfers. Such an interesting work history told Josiah that the good doctor’s previous captain had been glad to be rid of her, releasing her from her contract as soon as she had gotten to the station, but that she had been picked up quickly as soon as she was free. That led the examiner to believe the woman may have been the talented doctor that she appeared to be, but may be harboring something else that had caused her abrupt departure from her former postings, forcing her to move from opportunity to opportunity fast. Briefly Josiah wondered if he could get to the communications station to reach out to Interstel to get more information, but he doubted the potential for his inquiry being revealed would be worth the additional data he would receive.

  Communications was the next area of concern. While Salynn appeared to be the most gracious of the crew, second only to the captain, there seemed to be something… off about the Thrynn. A relatively recent addition to the crew, having only served on the last two cruises, he seemed gregarious but also somewhat false. Josiah found that there were some curious notes in his file as well. This was the first ship he received a posting for, and it seemed almost as if he was trying too hard to maintain the position. As the examiner read, he noticed that the Thrynn’s file was almost the opposite of the doctor’s. While Swatton had barely spent a week on the beach, the comms officer had apparently tried to join several ships with no success. Part of that was based off of inter-species issues: As a Thrynn, he could not be posted to a ship with an Elowan without careful consideration, and ships going into Elowan-controlled space would not want to risk being fired upon if they were scanned and found to be harboring one of their enemies.

  Still, it seemed that there was more to it, and Josiah wondered if it was due to the creature's relative youth and extremely eager nature. While clearly talented, Salynn appeared to be almost shockingly eager to please, and there was something about the unrelenting focus that was more than a little unnerving. Could it be that focus was just nervous, youthful energy, or was there something more sinister lurking behind it that he should be concerned about?

  Josiah looked around the galley, suppressing a yawn, and was suddenly acutely aware of just how alone he was on this particular mission. He had pressed his superiors for the opportunity to look into the situation himself, and it had all seemed like both a good way of improving his position and doing a service to his department as a whole. Unfortunately, he did not realize that he was going to be quite that alone, and a mixture of the surprising silence and his own internal disquiet lulled him into a fitful sleep.

  When he awoke, seemingly moments later, he was instantly aware that he was in unfamiliar surroundings. Feeling the reader carefully under his head, Josiah realized that he had been more tired than he had expected, and had fallen asleep in one corner of the galley. The lights in the room had dimmed, realizing there was no one moving around in the space, and had settled into a low-energy mode. He was about to get up and make his way to his cabin, when he heard voices coming from the corridor.

  "I can't believe you agreed to this, Jonathan! This is absolute madness." Doctor Swatton’s voice was clearly audible, and her tone quickly confirmed just how annoyed she was with the captain. "Do we really want Interstel delving too deeply into our affairs?”

  Josiah left his eyes open, verifying no one was in the room with him, and strained to hear the voices which seemed to be coming from around the bend of the corridor.

  "What choice did I have?" The captain no longer sounded like the amiable storyteller that Josiah had remembered from dinner. "Interstel is going to have their way one way or the other, and the last thing I want to do is to give them any reason to look any closer into our business than we have to. You know that they are building more ships every day, and we need to keep moving to remain competitive." His voice lowered slightly, but was still audible. “You, of all people, should know how expensive our operations are.”