I looked at my watch and it said 4am, I blinked thinking I’d misread the digits on the digital display. Pushing my fingers through my hair to remove the strands from my face, my fatigue was taking control. I blinked again and looked back out of the window to see the spacecraft from earlier departing from the hangar, having dropped off more human cargo, I presumed. Slowly accelerating back out into the depths of space, it moved gently for its size. It was one of the larger cargo craft that I’d seen, most of them still looked brand new due to the fact that they’d only been in operation for a few years since the evacuation of Earth and hadn’t seen any major damage in their routes through the galaxy system.

I sighed. My heart felt heavy from all the information that I’d just been given. My father may still be alive and there were people trying to kill me, some intense stuff to contemplate at four in the morning.

Stepping back from the window, I looked around the empty corridor and wondered if anyone was silently watching me or planning their next attack. A shiver went up my spine at the thought and I shrugged it off. I didn’t care anymore. I needed to sleep.

Turning, I quickly walked down the quiet corridor back to the lab, my bare feet squeaking on the polished tiled floor as I went. When I got to the door of the lab, I stopped and looked behind me, paranoid with thoughts of being followed. Tapping in the key code, the door slid open and I went inside, the simulators were just how we’d left them.

I went over to the one I’d been using and I started cleaning up the sticky pads and wires. Even though the Admiral had said that I could join the Temporal team, I still wanted it to look like no one had been there when the actual team came to work in the morning. Pulling the pads off and rolling up the wires, I grabbed a cloth and wiped the soft mattress squab down where I’d been laying. I then wiped the visor and hung it neatly on a hook on the side of the simulator.

Looking across at the simulator Jonty had been using, I contemplated tidying his area too. I shuddered as I thought about how he’d betrayed me. The feeling of unease rose in my stomach as I also thought about all the personal things that I’d told him over our friendship and the fact that he hadn’t even been my friend in the first place, just a false one.

Deciding that I should clean his simulator as well due to the fact that he was probably still with the Admiral, and I didn’t want us to be discovered by the main scientists just yet, I walked over and started wiping down his simulator too.

The residue smell of his cologne was still on the squab he’d been laying on and my heart fluttered. I had really hoped that we had been moving in a more romantic direction but it was clear that the attraction was one sided. Nursing a broken heart on top of everything else made me feel more emotional and I felt a tear slip down my cheek. Wiping it away with the back of my hand, I walked over to the recycling vent and pushed the cloths and used sticky pads down the rubbish chute.

Hearing the vacuum take hold of them and suck them down the chute, I dusted my hands and began to walk back to the simulator to grab my sneakers when I heard the sound of the lab door swishing open.

I froze and listened intently to try and hear who it was. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled up and a shiver ran over my skin as goosebumps arose. I had a strange feeling it wasn’t Jonty or the Admiral but someone sinister.

Chiding myself for being paranoid again, I told myself it was just the thoughts that the Admiral had planted in my head when he told me that I’d been in danger. Thinking it was best to be precautionary anyway I dropped to the floor and crawled over to the simulator and grabbed my shoes.

Carefully sitting up and resting my back against the bottom of the simulator, I slowly put my shoes on, trying not to make a sound. My sneakers would make less noise across the floor than my feet, my bare feet sticking to the tiles and squeaking while my sneakers would hopefully do what their name suggested and allow me to sneak out of the room.

Straining my ears to hear, I kept a listen out and I heard whoever it was walk to the control area. I heard the sound of keys tapping on a keyboard and what sounded like a chair squeaking as they sat down.

My heart was beating fast and I had hoped that it wasn’t as loud as what it sounded in my ears. I tried to keep my breathing steady and calm as I thought about what to do next.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Lifting myself slowly up, I held onto the squab on the simulator to gain purchase and use my arms to help lift me silently so I could peer over without being seen. The reflection on the glass between the two rooms was distracting but I could see a shadowy figure sitting in the dark in front of one of the computers. The light from the computer was pale on their face, I could see that they were wearing a mask and had a hood covering their head.

The lab door whooshed again and startled the person at the computer. They quickly jumped up and rushed to the door pushing past the person who had come in which turned out to be Jonty. Jonty fell into the side of the wall and cried out in surprise.

“Come back here!” He yelled as he gave chase.

I was curious to see what the person had been doing at the computer so I stood up and walked over to the control room. The screen was still on and I saw there was information about the Temporal project on screen including some plans and data from Jonty and my previous simulation. We always erased the data from each simulation after we had finished but we hadn’t had time tonight before the Admiral had come in.

The cameras Jonty and I had set up in the lab so we could tell when people had gone home for the night would switch the other security cameras in the lab off and then reinstate the feed on them once we were done. There were security cameras all over the ship so I didn’t worry that it’d be noticed that the cameras weren’t filming for durations of time in the lab, because the security guards were usually distracted by other goings on across the vessel.

It looked like the person had been copying the files across to a USB drive and stopped it when they were surprised by Jonty, taking the drive out before the transfer was complete.

I heard the doors swoosh open again and looked up, surprised, ready to see if the stranger had come back but I was greeted by Jonty‘s concerned face as he strode into the room.

“Where have you been?” Jonty said, looking at me with a frown.

“I’ve been in here, tidying up. Who was that?” I responded sharply, still annoyed at him.

“I don’t know but they were incredibly fast. They got away from me really quickly and leapt down into one of the recycling chutes. I’ve let security know, they’re going to try and catch the perpetrator down in the recycling area.” He said, still panting from the chase. “Are you okay?”

“Yes I’m fine, I was just in here making sure things looked completely clean. I thought that we should still try and keep our missions as much of a secret as possible until I’m ready to work with the other scientists or should I say, until I’ve had time to think about it.” I said, avoiding his gaze.

“Understandable. Ariah, I’m sorry about what…” Jonty began.

I wasn’t ready to talk to him about everything else so I interrupted him.

“Look, here.” I said, pointing at the screen. “It seems that the person was copying files from our simulation. They were also copying plans for the simulator and some of the data.”

Jonty looked incredulous.

“This project is top-secret so how would they have known about it?” He said, looking at where I was pointing.

“Maybe they knew my father?” I said, quizzically.

“Maybe, but it’s a long shot.” Jonty said as he looked at me. “I think there’s been a breach in trust in the staff here.”

“But who? They’ve taken the data that you and I have been working on, and not the other screeds of information.”

“Maybe I frightened them off before they got what they wanted.” Jonty shrugged.

“Maybe…and is this the first time they’ve done it? They could have been coming in while we’ve been in situ on the simulators. We wouldn’t know.” I pondered.

“But we did have sensors set up in case we were caught, so it’s unlikely.” Jonty pointed out.

I stood thinking and trying to work out what they actually wanted with the information that they grabbed but my brain was sleep deprived and exhausted.

“I can’t think straight, I need to go to bed.” I sighed as I rubbed my eyes and yawned.

“Me too. I’ll walk you to your quarters.” Jonty said, giving me a soft smile.

I nodded, too tired to argue.

“I’ll just finish deleting our data and then we can go.”

Tapping in the name of our secret file structure within a hidden folder, I hit delete but an error message popped up on screen, and then it occurred to me.

“Jonty, all of our data is behind a password inside a secret file. We only put it on just before each session, then take it off once we’re finished. How did the intruder know a) where it was on the computer and b) the password?” I said, stunned.

Jonty raised his eyebrow.

“How indeed.” He frowned.