The day cycle began innocently enough. Almost pleasant, in a way. Despite the fact that I was now alone in what were now my exclusive quarters aboard the ship, the silence was almost soothing. Some time to release the straps that held me in bed (should the gravity fail) and I was out, flipping out of the bed in as flashy a manner as possible.

A quick stretch later and I went looking for my stimulant of choice, an old soft drink recipe of choice known as 'coke'. I was pretty much the only one on the ship that liked it, so my few chemical ramblings were mostly attempts to reproduce it via artificial means.

The current concoction, I felt, was close. I couldn't be sure however, since I'd never tasted the real thing. Roger Smitt was never one to let a small thing like that stop him though.

The security drone standing just inside his living room however, brought certain facts crashing home, even this early. Even as captain, I wasn't fully in control... yet.

I wasn't sure he wanted to be, either.

Oddball suspected my friend... my best friend... of wishing to do me bodily harm. I was a “Very important person to ship operations and morale”, to quote the blasted device. I wanted to believe it wrong, wanted that more than anything. But I wasn't so sure anymore.

Mouse would even be well within her rights, in my opinion. However, as captain, I had to try and keep the ship from flying apart, either figuratively... or literally. Which meant finding mouse, as soon as possible, and either talking her down or.....

Or what? What could we really do? They needed her, now more than ever. With Oddball acting more screwed up than even the last generation could remember (I had asked before they were frozen) they needed Mouse to come up with a solution for the biggest crisis for the continuation of the species since the actual destruction of the earth itself.

I downed my concoction and dressed quickly; I just knew I'd have a busy day. A busy, hectic, horrible day. The way I saw it, there were three options for what was going to happen. The first, and the most unlikely, was that Mouse was now suicidal and would kill us all. The Mouse I knew had too strong a love of life and sense of duty for our mission to do that.

The next, and the most likely in my opinion, was that Mouse would selectively kill or freeze certain members of the crew before revealing herself and towing the party line, removing those she saw as her enemies and then settling in to ship life.

She was too valuable to kill, but if she killed anyone, no matter the cause, I would see her pay for it for the rest of her existence.

The last option I saw was her simply staying gone for weeks, or months, and then rejoining the crew. I didn't put much chance of that, but more than the first. She was very angry, after all. While I could see her sabotaging Oddball in my fondest dreams, I knew there would be some sort of retaliation for this.

It turns out she thought of a fourth option.

“Roger?!? Roger? Captain, can you send maintenance to my quarters, please?”

Lissa.

“Sure, what's the problem?”

“Nothing! Just a bit of a mess I'll need help with.”

“Spill, Lissa. What happened?”

“My waste hose from my toilet was rerouted... then reversed somehow. I don't even understand how, I mean, it's a gravity feed, right? How could anyone....”

And now that the reticence had broken she was off, talking a mile a minute. Mouse. It had to be Mouse, and Lissa knew it too.

“On my way.”

“What? No! Can't you just send maintenance or something?”

“You know I can't Lissa; it's pretty obvious Mouse was there, and we need to at least investigate for clues. Just wait there, a team is on the way.”

“But....”

“No buts. Sit tight, and don't touch anything. We are on the way.”

She really didn't want me there. I wondered how bad the damage was. For her to not want me there seemed to shove this sabotage more into the embarrassment category than dangerous. Otherwise she'd be screaming her head off for a security detachment. I clicked my pad.

“Seth, respond.”

“Sup, captain?”

“Need you to grab Joe and meet me in front of Lissa's quarters with your bio-hazard gear and supplies.”

“Sure, but why?”

“I'd think that would be obvious. Now, Seth.”

“On the way, boss. I'll bring you a suit too.”

My drone escort was of course, following me, which meant that Oddball had heard all. No idea what it was thinking, and I wasn't going to ask. We will settle this ourselves. Asking Oddball for thoughts or ideas would be a terrible decision.

One step into Lissa's quarters almost made me reconsider. My boots squelched, rather than impact the standard gravity plating. I stopped.

“Lissa?”

“In here.”

Entering her bedroom, the first thing that hit me was the smell. The pure stench of waste and treatment chemicals used to break said waste down melted the hair in my nose. I swore I could hear them sizzle. The waste hose was more than in Lissa's quarters, it was in her bunk, having been extended from the bathroom.

From the look of her, she had not woke immediately after the back-flow process started. She was literally caked with the... stuff. I wanted to laugh, but I didn't like what this stunt said about our security.

While it was true the head botanist did not rate the same security as a captain, I should have foreseen this.

Well that's not true, I had. I had in fact anticipated Mouse sneaking into Lissa's quarters through the vents and murdering her in her sleep. Yet I hadn't ordered a full security lock-down of personnel quarters.

I didn't want Oddball to roll out more security drones, and have even more resources to use against us. So this was clearly my fault, and I had to make good.

“Yo boss, we're here, what's...whoa.”

“Don't come in, you jerks!”

“Sorry your highness, unless you want to clean all this up yourself, I recommend you drop the attitude. We have the suits and the goods. Boss, those boots of yours got to go. Same with you Lissa, strip the nightie. Some of these chemicals are caustic.”

“I'll... just go take a shower.”

“Good idea. Use plenty of soap.”

“You think I wouldn't?”

“No I mean it, the entire tube. I'll authorize more; this is essentially a hazardous materials spill. And go now.”

She only waited long enough to grab some fresh clothes which thankfully enough, had been left alone. That left the rest of us to wade through the small pond of waste. The bedding was a complete loss. The bed might be too, for all I knew. As for me, I sprayed my boots with a solution Joe handed me (so quiet I only dimly registered his presence) and then suited up to help.

Of course, no sooner had I put the gloves on when my pad chimed.

“Captain, this is Carla, can you come to the farm please?”

The farm was the other name we had for hydroponics, and with Lissa here, Carla was on duty there.

“Is it important Carla?”

“I wouldn't call if it wasn't. I know you're busy.”

“Sorry Seth, duty calls.”

I was apologetic for a reason; I was responsible, so I should be here cleaning up this mess.

“It's no problem boss, we got this.”

“I want you to relocate Lissa to berth 14. That way if you need to, clean up can wait. You can just help her move and spray the place with neutral decontaminates.”

Berth 14 was closer to my own quarters, but I'd take the added headache in order to make the statement.

“Gotcha boss.”

From the bathroom came a shrill scream. I as at the door and overriding it when Lissa spoke:

“No, don't come in! Everything's fine!”

“Lissa, what happened?”

“The hot and cold water is rerouted. That little....”

I wasn't sure I wanted to hear the rest of that. I turned to Seth, who was struggling to keep a straight face. Joe behind him had abandoned that idea entirely, and was instead chuckling near silently.

“Not a word you two. Just... just help her move.”

And then I was off to the next disaster.

….......................................................................................................................................

I watched from my monitor, nursing my poor mutilated body. Mostly healed or not, laughing hurt like no other pain I'd ever felt; I was grateful I had some pain medication to take the edge off, or I'd be completely sidelined.

The view of Lissa drenched in waste however, frozen on my monitor while trying to talk to Roger, was priceless. The look on her face! I'd treasure it forever. And the shower afterwords... well, almost worth all that's happened.

But not really, of course.

I did feel kind of bad for Seth and Joe getting stuck on clean up, but they deserved it too; they were lucky I didn't do more to them. I still might. And dear Roger, traitor in chief, had another fire to put out. Hmmm, fire, that gave me another idea. Something to put into motion right after the pain caused by the laughter went away.
Besides, the feed from hydroponics wouldn't be nearly as entertaining.

…...................................................................................................................................

Carla had wonderful news for me. It seems that Mouse had made her way past the guards, and managed to steal several plants. Not just the fruit, or the vegetables, the plants themselves. As an engineer, that and the tablets she'd stolen from medical made her self sustaining from just about anywhere on the ship.

But in order to continue to grow the plants, she would need certain things. I did not want to do this, but duty is heavier than a mountain, so an Earther said once. No truer words.

“Oddball.”

“Yes Captain Smitt?”

“Do you still have a drone at chemical and storage?”

“Yes Captain Smitt.”

“Are they outside the door?”

“Yes Captain Smitt.”

“Move them inside; the shift personnel can watch the outside, and there is a chance Mouse hasn't picked up the chemicals needed to sustain the plants. Up the alert for them too, have them long any life signals. It could be Mouse is masking herself from sensors as one of us somehow.”

“That is very unlikely.”

“Just do it Oddball. We can't afford to take chances here. Captain out.”

I turned to Carla.

“You keep the mix for the chemical baths on site, don't you?”

“Yes, but I don't think she could....”

“I know, it's highly unlikely she could haul it off in her current condition...but inventory it anyway. Then lock it up. Requisition one of the old padlocks from Claire, the kind with the combination, not the key kind.”

“Alright, consider it done.”

That handled, I headed back to the habitation wing. Seth was waiting for me alone, but Lissa had presumably already moved into 14. Seth read my expression.

“Yeah she's mostly moved boss. I sent Joe to find out what Mouse did to the waste management system, since you said we could take our time cleaning up. I was just about to put the hazard warnings out.”

I helped him paste the plastic bio hazard signs on the door. No one other than myself or Lisa could enter anyway (at least without squeezing through a vent) so it was just a precaution. I hoped it wouldn't become a harbinger of things to come.

“OK so here's what we got. You know how the treatment system works, right? There is a collection tank at the far end of habitation here' he showed me on his pad, which had the schematics pulled up 'working on a three day cycle. It holds everything for three days, mixing and breaking it down, then pumps it to the primary collection/compost while removing all the toxic of flammable gasses, and pumping them to other tanks.”

“Right.”

“well, she bypassed the hose just past the vacuum pump here, and re-routed it straight into Lissa's toilet hose. So when the timer tripped, she got it all. Everything for the past three days, and the chemicals used to break it all down. It was the matter of maybe 10 minutes with a wrench. To be honest, I'm surprised the hose could take that kind of load; it should have been springing leaks all over the place, but Joe said it was solid.”

“That pump and containment tank are in zero-g, right?”

“Sure are.”

Damn it Mouse, that's pretty sneaky.

“We need to focus our scans there then; chances are she's still in one of those areas.”

“I'd agree. It's an ideal place to hang out and heal up.”

“Not really, it can have detrimental long term effects on her, healing up with no gravitational pressure.”

“It can?”

“Picture veins and arteries sewn back together healing with less thickness than before, then rupturing once she returns to regular activity in normal gravity.”

“Oh, ouch.”

“Yes, ouch. We need to find her. You know any of her old haunts?”

Seth shook his head.

“You know Mouse, there were places she never let anyone into. Her hiding places were one of them. You likely know more of them than I do.”

He spoke again to forestall my objection.

“I'll think on it, I will. But don't wait for me. I'll also get Joe on it. He sees more than he lets on, sometimes. People tend to forget he's there.”

My guess was he liked it like that.

“Siegfried, Guido, I've got a job for you.”

“What do you need Captain? And you going to come relieve me on the bridge?”

“Yes, but you aren't getting any sleep yet. I'll make it up to you later. I need you and Guido to passkey through all the quarters used in the habitation wing and seal the vents.”

“What was that, Captain?”

“Yes you heard right; I don't care if you have to weld them shut, seal them. Ideally so well they can resist outside entry, but it not rig it so they make enough noise to raise the dead. Every single one.”

His sigh was loud, even across the pad speaker.

“Understood Captain. Guido, you heard?”

“Yes, Sieg; already gathering the tools for it... two sets.”

“I'll meet you there.”

That should help. If we sealed the vents it should limit her choices. We couldn't entirely seal the access tubes, but I was sorely tempted. But going through the tubes then sealing them behind us with motion detectors or more permanent means, should be enough. If we sealed all the vents first.

Every single one. What a mess.

….........................................................................................................................................

I nodded to myself; Roger was finally getting serious. About time, really. I'd have said he was too soft, but he had after all, voted to mutilate his best friend on the advice of an insane AI.

I rose a bit from where I had my makeshift surveillance suite. It was time for medication and lunch, in that order. The closing of the vents didn't worry me too much, as I had expected that. I had thought I would have more time, but this didn't affect my plans much.

The throw-away pad (Lissa's old one, she hadn't missed it yet, and how she rated more than one I didn't know) was busy hacking into the social event files. Soon I'd know who voted for me, and who against. My own pad was a nice diversion, should the traitors ever get that far. But I had other back ups.

Next up was Claire. I thought we were friends once, but no longer. And if we were not friends, we were enemies. And enemies got the angry engineer treatment, until I felt a little less angry. It had to happen sometime, right?

Maybe by the time we were due to be frozen. Until then, let the games begin, Captain traitor. Catch me if you can.
….........................................................................................................................................

Sieg had to sleep sometime, and that time came four hours later; I couldn't see making him pull his shift tonight without something. So I took over, with just over half the vents in the habitation wing sealed.

I looked in on the last one they did, it was both welded (a rush job, it looked mildly awful, though that could be simply due to Sieg being tired) and dotted with motion detectors set to trigger a siren should the vent or sensor be moved in any way.

Guido believed in being thorough.

“Alright Sieg, get some sleep; I'll take over.”

“All your Captain. We should have done this years ago. I know I'll sleep easier now.”

That sounded a bit off.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean knowing that we have someone that can crawl around those vents without any of us knowing sounds like all fun and games, and I didn't really mind Mouse doing it before, but obviously she's gone a bit off the deep end here, and I'll sleep safer knowing she can't get to me.”

I shook my head.

“She's just angry. She has cause.”

“I never said she doesn't Captain. I'm just saying I don't want to see what else she has planned for the rest of us, and I hope shes done with Lissa. I feel safer with my vent barricaded until she calms down.”

Guido, almost as quiet a Joe, chose this moment to break his silence.

“I agree. Always best to be prepared, and the quicker we remove her options, the quicker we can focus on finding and helping her.”

I waved it off. I guess they couldn't help the tinge of anger in their voices either, even if they had no cause.

“Get some sleep Sieg, you aren't getting out of your shift unless the doc calls you in sick.”

“Yep, I'm out.”

I settled in to weld the next one, which happened to be mine. Well I certainly hadn't planned that. We had no need to be quiet, Jen had moved out at the same time as our parents were frozen, citing the need for 'space', whatever that meant. We had more than enough space in my opinion, both inside and outside the ship.

It really just meant I saw her even less than I did before.

Four hours of mindless welding later and we were done, at least with habitation. Still a far cry from the goal of having everything locked down so we could search, but at least with security drones on either side of the habitation wing and the vents welded, the engineering access tubes locked, we would be safe from further reprisal.

Carla had not contacted me yet, so I went to find her; I found her in the cafeteria, drinking something that smelled strongly of my new cabinet in the captain's office. I pointedly pretended not to notice. Lissa was next to her, looking very clean, and everywhere but at me.

“So Carla, what happened with that inventory?”

“I just finished it and came here to get something; I worked through lunch on it.”

I nodded to show I understood her diligence, and the reason she didn't contact me sooner. She was still rubbing Lissa's hand.

“The quick answer is yes, supplies are missing, but not enough to sustain the number of plants Mouse took for longer than a week, two at most. Either she's planning on actually eating the plants entirely, or she will need more.”

No self respecting member of this generation would kill a food bearing plant, so I could safely plan on her trying to take more. Likely not tonight, but I'd already moved the security drones in both the lab and botany wings to the inside of their respective areas; in the case of botany, I'd made sure it would patrol this time.

Best I could do for tonight; by tomorrow I could set a good trap. But maybe I could lower my chances.

A quick work order for Brunhilde to continue what we had started on night shift, only this time welding the vents in the botany wing first, and I would have both another person in place to stop Mouse from grabbing more, and the place locked down that much more quickly.

And it would also stop Mouse from doing worse than just grabbing some growth mix, if she were so inclined. After all, she had an independent source of food for herself now, there was nothing really stopping her from sabotaging ours. I really did not like that thought at all.

I grabbed a drink for myself, Marion just let me with a nod.

I wanted it to be alcoholic, but the last thing I needed was for Oddball to relieve me of command for being under the influence of a mind altering drug. Then, Like the rest of the ship, I settled in uneasily to wait.