Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 154 of 365. Sol standard year]

Days after of Crash landing/ 2

Uninhabited Island / Clearing of Escape Capsule # 405

Galactic Standard Time / After 1450

“So why shouldn’t I throw that bastard out of the shield now?” Duncan asked with a growl. He glared at Terra and tried to think of any reason she had to tell him not to do anything. Not to stalk outside right now, go over and get the answer from this person by force. This was a situation in which the choices he made would mean the difference if they all survived or not.

Terra looked at him, and then she sighed. “Because you have no reason, legal that is. What I told you isn’t anything that might hold up in a court of law. Not to even talk about the company lawyers.”

Duncan looked at Terra with a hard look before he took a deep breath.

“I don’t understand you, girl. You said you think he left something out! We’re in a life-or-death situation Terra! That means I have all the power I need to demand the truth from him!” Duncan said with a growl.

“Yeah, but the thing is, I said I think he did the politician’s lie. That means he told the truth as he saw it. He might have left something out, but that just means that he might not have thought he did. There’s more to what happened, sure. But did he do it on purpose?” Terra said with a shrug. Then she looked at him with a scowl. “And can we prove it? I just told you that I think he lied. And the civilians will give us so much flank for that if you throw him out!”

“You think? You don’t have proof or anything that people will believe, that’s the problem then?” Duncan asked as he looked at Terra with a hard look. “And you don’t feel commutable telling me how you got that feeling then?”

She looked back at him before she nodded. “I just got a feeling, something that told me there was more. It’s not that I don’t want to explain sir. I just can’t explain how I know he didn’t tell us everything.”

Duncan looked at her and then he snorted. That was the meat of the problem, what could they prove here? It was all well and good to say he lied, but what can you prove? “So we have to do nothing as a Cult Leader that might have sacrificed people walking around our safety area? And do nothing!?”

Duncan waved off what Terra was going to say and sighed, shaking his head. “I already know the answer to that! But I don’t have to like it!”

Terra only sighed and shook her head. “Yeah, there is that sir. But we don’t have to do nothing. We can do something, just not anything that’s too obvious.”

Duncan looked up and grinned evilly. There were a lot of things that he could do. As he thought of them all, he sighed and shook his head. “All this and those punks have only been gone one day. I mean, how long do you think it’ll take them to get back to us? A week at worst?”

“It all depends on how hard the terrain is sir. And if they even get there through the creatures out there. But the shield should hold. We just need to keep our guard up,” Terra admitted. She looked up and sighed. “As for the others, I don’t know. It all depends if they can find a way there and get through the monster.”

“Yeah. Those things,” Duncan admitted, releasing a sigh. He turned his chair around and looked at the wall behind him, trying to think. So far, the only thing he knew was that there was someone here who might be the cult leader that the same man warned of. He had no idea how that madness had happened, what that landing capsule had found, or who was in it. The scum probably didn’t even remember the number of the capsule he was in. So they wouldn’t know where on the ship it came from, or who might have been on it. And that was a nightmare in itself. People would be listed as missing, and the media would eat that up. Duncan knew that those people would yell and scream. Say things like that when things go wrong, the company lets people die. But that was something to worry about once they made it back to the Federation.

After a few minutes, Duncan sighed and shook his head. “Fine. About that Roch or whatever his name is. We’ll do nothing for now, obvious that it. I want him to stay up there until we’re sure he’s in one piece mentally. Start making a trench by the generators, the shield will keep the ran out, right? Then he can sleep in the trenches or down here. But he’s not getting into this capsule until I’m sure he’s stable!”

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“Not the worst or the harshest we could do. It should make the others back off if you frame it right. I mean we hold power, but a riot will kill all of us,” Terra said with a hard tone.

“You're right about that. But sill. There are other problems here. If those things were bred to die, then we need to be prepared to fight them off. How’s the shield?” Duncan asked as he tried to think of the problems ahead of them.

Those things that attacked us. We might need to send you out girl,” Duncan said softly before looking at her. “Or someone you trust. You're my second while the team is gone after all.”

“What!? Me!?” Terra exclaimed as she looked at him.

Duncan only chuckled, thinking about how she was reacting. That was a lot like he had once when he was first given a command of his own. The horror was the right of response, the best leaders were those who didn’t want it.

“Well, we need someone with authority up there. And with my leg and the limited supplies, you’ll make up faster. So you’re it,” Duncan said with a shrug.

“Sir….. Sir!” Terra said as she saluted him. “I accept this responsibility, sir!”

“Good! So any other problems?” Duncan asked as he looked at her.

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Terra blinked, trying to understand what he meant. Shaking her head, she looked at Duncan. “Besides what we talked about, no. But still, there are a lot of moving parts here. Maybe we should send out a small scouting group tomorrow, give us some time to see what’s happening out there?”

Duncan nodded, looking at her and then smiling. “Make your choice girl, you are in charge now. Well, you’re the second in command. And good luck.”

“Sir,” Terra said before she turned and walked towards the door.

“Wait,” Duncan said suddenly. She looked back at him and saw the look on his face. “Telling others about what we think our new friend did? That’s your call. Just keep him contained!”

“Yes sir!” Terra said saluting again. She closed the door and tried to think of what to do now. As the second here, she suddenly had a lot more responsibilities than she did before.

“Miss Terra!” A voice called from her right causing her to scowl as she looked towards Bradford. The way the man was looking at her, she knew that this was going to be something that she wouldn’t like at all.

“Mr. Bradford. What can the crew of the Spirit do for you today?” Terra said trying to keep calm. She saw others behind him, a few crew members, and mostly other passengers. They were all close enough to hear without looking like they were. And somehow, she just knew that Bradford had taught them how to listen in on tethers. That seemed like a perfect skill for that bottom feeder to know.

Bradford looked at her and took a deep breath. “What happened up there!? We all heard blaster fire, were we attacked again? Is the shield down?!”

“NO!” Terra said with a scowl. She saw the people behind Bradford all look scared. She took a deep breath, trying to gather her resolve. She had to handle this right, she had to use it to keep their morale up. “We were attacked, but we’ve been holding them off! The monsters haven’t even gotten the shields down by a fourth! We will hold them off! You will know everything that happens as it happens! If the shield ever goes below fifty percent, you’re all going to know!”

“So you say! But can we trust you?” One of the passengers called out from a mass to the left.

Terra looked in that direction, trying to see who had spoken. She tried to understand just how some people could even have brains that worked. The sheer idiocy of some people just took her breath away sometimes.

“Then if you can’t trust me, why are you bothering me? How can you even ask me questions in the first place?” Terra asked with a hard tone of voice.

To her question the only thing that she heard was silence. And she heard a few people coughing, and she knew the silence was a mark of shame.

Bradford only rubbed his eyes before sighing as he looked. “There is that my friends. Do try and keep your minds active.”

As the people muttered to themselves, Bradford looked at Terra.

She looked at him and tried to get what he was after from his eyes, but she got nothing. She could tell when people were lying to her. But she had to hear them first. It was a little trick she had, she didn’t understand and it never worked all the time. But with Bradford, all she felt was a threat. And for some reason, everything she had was telling her that Bradford could help.

“But if it will make you all feel better, perhaps Sir Bradford would like to take a walk and see for himself?” Terra called out as she looked at Bradford. She saw his eye widen in shock and then she knew that she had him.

“I will of course be happy to help our valiant defenders! Please, my friends, trust my word!” Bradford said as he turned and looked at everyone.

From the way everyone looked at him and nodded, Terra knew that this might have been the right play after all.

Terra stepped aside as the door to the outside opened, and Bradford walked through. Terra followed after him and then closed the door behind her. Before Bradford could walk through it, Terra grabbed his arm. “We’re staying down here! There’s someone up there that we need to talk about for a while!”

“Oh?” Bradford asked and he looked at her with a surprised look. “And what would you need to talk to me about one of the other deckhands?”

“Just that he’s not a deckhand. He’s from another Capsule. He’s saying that they all died after someone there went mad and started a cult. They almost sacrificed a baby. And we’re thinking that he was the leader,” Terra said and she saw Bradford blink in shock.

“What!? Why would you think I’d know anything about someone like that!?” Bradford asked in a shocked tone.

Terra only looked at him for a long moment. She had no idea what this play was going to do, but something told her it was the right call. She couldn’t understand why she felt this way, but there it was. Time to play all the cards and see what hand she had.

“Frankly you probably don’t. But still, there is something that has to be said. We might have let a problem into our perimeter. And since you’ve become the civilian leader in all but name, I judged that it was something you should know. That’s the only reason that you’re here,” Terra said as she looked at Bradford and waited.

After a moment, Bradford chuckled and shook his head. “Well, that’s very flattering madam. And I thank you. But really, what could I know about….. I’m sorry. But I don’t think you told me exactly who this cult leader is. So what’s this man’s name?”

“He called himself Roch, Roch Dacount,” Terra said with a shrug. She wasn’t expecting Bradford to go white or stare at him with his mouth open in shock.

“Roch Dacount became a cult leader? And he’s here!?” Bradford demanded horror in his voice.

Terra blinked, not expecting that reaction. It seemed that these two had history after all.