C9 Sabotage (Patreon)

Do you know what I really like about this section of Executioner's Gambit? I've got the outlook oscillating from "They'll succeed!" to "They'll fail!" and back again. I'm hoping it'll be emotionally exhausting to read. 😼

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Tori turned to Druka, but her mate looked dumbfounded. “Removed his radio?” she whispered to no one.

“Will that help, somehow?” he asked her, but she shook her head.

“It’ll buy us a few minutes, I suppose,” she said. “He can’t tell the company he’s been poisoned yet, but he’s going to land soon. He’ll tell everyone then. They need to close the gate now, before he can send troops.”

The captain’s ears twitched back at their conversation, low and irritated, but he didn’t turn. “What’s his course? Is he reacting?”

“No change,” said Onaha. “He’s maintaining velocity and heading. They’re hailing again.”

“Shuttlecraft, this is the Night Strike.” The captain’s voice sounded more desperate. “Commissioner Troykintrassa? Please sir, we just need your authorization codes, and you can be on your way.”

Tori squeezed her mate’s paw, trying to keep from shaking. “They wouldn’t shoot him down, would they?” she whispered.

“The Night Strike is taking an aggressive posture,” said Onaha. “They’re… No, they’re moving to escort her, not intercept.”

Captain Gutassi flopped back in his chair with an audible sigh. “And the shuttle?”

“Still no reaction from the commissioner. On a direct course to Krakuntec.”

Gutassi covered both eyes with his paws. “Current flight time?” There was a distinct tremble in his voice.

“Three minutes,” said Onaha. “T minus two minutes.”

Druka looked over to Tori. “Two minutes?” he whispered. “Two minutes to what?”

She glanced at him, her big brown eyes wide and scared. She shook her head.

The room lapsed back into silence save for Onaha calling out the flight time occasionally.

“On course,” she said. “T minus ninety seconds.”

The captain gripped his chest with one paw. Tori considered calling Doctor Amhela, just in case Gutassi was having a heart attack. She wished the strand network was still online.

“Still on course. Sixty seconds.”

“Forty-five seconds.”

“On course. Thirty seconds.”

“Twenty.”

“Ten.”

Ten seconds elapsed and then ten more while everyone waited.

“I think…” Onaha finally whispered. “Yes… Yes. It’s almost undetectable, but the shuttlecraft is accelerating.”

Onaha turned her seat around, her ears out in obvious relief. “Engines have failed.”

“What?” shouted Tori, climbing from her seat. Her heart raced even faster.

“Altitude?” asked Captain Gutassi.

“Twenty-three thousand kilometers!” she cheered. “Easily high enough.”

Then the officers were standing, their arms clenched around one another in a hug. They bounced slightly in their joy.

Druka stood too. “What’s going on?”

Their captors finally fell away from each other. The captain flopped back down in his seat, and Onaha returned to watching the commissioner’s progress. Gutassi explained, “Onaha sabotaged the commissioner’s engines. He’s in free-fall now.”

Tori and Druka shared a look, and the captain added, “When he dies in the crash, no one will realize he was poisoned.”

Tori’s eyes nearly popped from her head. “You’re m-murdering poor Troykintrassa?” she stammered. She hadn’t known the commissioner long, only talked to him for a few hours, but still their coldness made her heart ache. He was a living, breathing person, a pleasant companion, and they were celebrating his impending death? “Wh-why? He’s a sweet guy!”

“I’m saving ten thousand people by sacrificing one,” said the captain indignantly. “It’s the simplest airlock dilemma ever. Everyone knows killing one would be the moral choice.”

Onaha shrugged her grey shoulders. “The Executioner killed him, technically. We’re just covering it up,” she said, eyes still on the screen. “He was dead anyhow—well, probably. Killing him in a crash is infinitely more merciful than letting the radiation get him over the next week.”

Tori put her paws to her cheeks. “Where’s he going to crash?” she asked. “Into a city?”

“Maybe,” said the captain. He didn’t sound overly concerned. “Or maybe an ocean or a farm or a mountain?” He turned his seat about and smiled wide. “But what’s crucially important is that a slave didn’t kill him. There’s no reason to purge all the Sailor’s Gambit I!”

“No reason to purge us?” screamed the rusty red geroo. “You’ve murdered the commissioner! You! Our captain! That’s the classic reason for a purge!”

Gutassi folded his paws in his lap. “His shuttle was unmaintained and falling apart. He said it himself, that ‘at least being poisoned would save me from burning up on re-entry’.”

“That’s what gave us the idea, actually,” shared Onaha.

“No!” Tori groaned and stumbled around in a small circle with her palms on her head. “Don’t you know anything about krakun crime scene investigation?”

The officers turned to face her but remained silent.

Tori growled in frustration. “They’ll want to know if he was flying drunk. When they find the body, they’ll draw a blood sample. They’ll find the poison!”

The captain and engineering chief relaxed slightly. Onaha actually smirked. “I … may have removed the bolts behind the shuttle’s nose shield. I left only the mounting clips holding it in place. On re-entry, it’s going to pop off, and instead of redirecting the air around the vehicle, it’ll act as a funnel, blowing it right into the passenger compartment.”

Tori and Druka looked between the two, lost, before the captain finally explained, “You can’t autopsy a cinder.”

Tori covered her mouth with a paw, shocked but unsure how she should feel. They had let him escape, let him believe that he’d survive, only to make certain that he’d die a few minutes later.

It was barbaric—horrible, cruel, and undeserved, but could it save everyone?

“The stuff I sabotaged—the radio, the flight controls—” explained Onaha, sounding satisfied, almost smug, “they were right behind the nose shield too. So, when that superheated gas breaches the firewall, they’ll be the first things to melt, destroying all the evidence.”

Tori crushed her palms into her eyes. “They’re going to presume we sabotaged his shuttle, you idiots! They’re going to know we did it. You’ve concealed the commissioner’s murder by murdering him. You’re never going to get away with this!”

“No,” said the captain, poorly feigning sadness. “We’ve replaced a murder with a tragic accident. The shuttle was in terrible shape and only barely made it here. No one’s going to be surprised when it crashes.”

Tori curled her paws into fists. Shaking, she growled. “Oh, yeah? And how will they know his shuttle was in bad shape?”

That brought the captain up short. The officers shared a silent look.

“Don’t know?” asked Tori. “Fine. Let me explain. First, they’ll investigate the crash site and all contact with the shuttle prior to the crash. They’ll be trying to figure out if he hit something that damaged his ship. Why didn’t he respond to the interceptor? Was he impaired? Was the shuttle manufacturer at fault? Or whoever fixed it last, did they screw up? And when none of those lines of inquiry pan out, they’ll ask, ‘Was it sabotaged intentionally?’”

A silence stretched. “Krakuntec’s investigators and their forensic science are legendary. Trust me, I’ve researched this. No one ever gets away with murder on Krakuntec. If you haven’t given them one of the other possibilities to latch onto—and you haven’t!—then all you’ve done is delay their investigation. Sooner or later, they’ll figure out that you tampered with his ship.”

Onaha stared at Gutassi for a long while before she finally found her words. “Captain? Is this true?”

Captain Gutassi studied his paws without answering. He made fists. He relaxed them. Finally, he slapped his thighs and looked up, grinning. “No, it’s not true. We can still salvage this plan! We have something that they don’t anticipate us having.”

When he didn’t explain, Tori let out an exasperated gasp. “What?”

Gutassi looked around the bridge with a crafty smile. Then turning back to Tori, he explained, “We have a top-notch murder investigator.”

Tori glanced at her mate. His ears hung low, clearly overwhelmed by the day’s events. Then she shrugged at the captain. “I’ve caught one serial killer.”

That was obviously not what Gutassi wanted to hear, but he forged ahead, “So, you’re knowledgeable on investigation and how it’s done.”

Her ruined ears fell, but at the same moment, Engineering Chief Onaha began to smile. “Um, well, I…” Tori muttered.

“And so, you’re going to fix this for us,” said the captain quietly. “If you can solve a murder, then you can cover one up.”

Tori took a step back and raised her paws, showing her scarred palms to the officers. “Wait. No.”

“Yeah, you can!” said Onaha, grinning maniacally. “You can fix this.”

“No, I can’t,” she said. “The krakun have a hundred thousand years of experience at this. I’m only on my second case!”

“No, no, no,” said Gutassi. “You can beat them, and do you know why?”

Tori shook her head with a tiny, nervous gesture, her eyes wide and fixed on the captain.

“Because solving crimes is just a job for them,” he said. “But your life is on the line. You’ve got every incentive to work harder.”

With tragic eyes, she looked around the bridge, her mouth opening and closing slightly. Finally, she grabbed Druka by the wrist and headed toward the door, her green cane tapping the way.

After only a few steps, she paused, turned back, and pointed the cane at Captain Gutassi. “Y’know what? Screw you guys!” she shouted. “C’mon Druka. If I’ve only got a little time left, I’m spending it with someone worth caring about, not a couple murdering bastards.”

With a surprising burst of speed, the old engineering chief dashed around the edge of the bridge and stopped with arms wide, blocking the exit. She struggled to speak, then managed, “You won’t even try? I’ve got a family, Tori, grandcubs. Saving their lives isn’t even worth an attempt?”

Druka pulled his arm away and raised his paws in prayer. “Come on, Tori. I know you’re pissed. I don’t blame you, but is there any harm in trying?”

After a long moment of self-reflection and more than a couple calming breaths, she put her paw on his and gave him a hesitant smile. “I suppose not.”

Then, summoning her courage, Tori walked to the captain. She jabbed a finger into his chest. “But here’s how it’s going to go: You guys are gonna do anything I say, without questioning it.”

Gutassi crossed his arms. “I may question it,” he warned her. “I’ll do what you want, but I expect explanations.”

“Okay, that’s close enough,” she conceded, putting her fists on her hips, “and also, when this is done, if we somehow survive, you’re going to get me my surgery.”

“I already signed your permission form, Tori,” he grunted.

“Yeah, and now you’re going to own it,” she explained. “I don’t care what you have to do—order Doctor Amhela to perform the surgery, threaten him, stand beside him and hand him the scalpel, help him hide that it ever happened, I don’t care. You’re making sure I get it.”

“Yes, okay,” Gutassi agreed with a smile. “You save us, I’ll save you.”

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KQaLJC1tqBHURfWRvIkCv6pRL59pK-795wWiYMbI4Sk/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?