The Riddle
Ruby smiled, looking down on Tec as he stumbled off the bio-replicator's platform and fell onto the deck of the fabrication station.
"This is exciting," she said rubbing two of her minor appendages together.
"What?" Tec asked sitting up and shaking his head trying to clear post-print fog. "That I've survived printing again," he added amid a prolonged fart.
"Well, that, too," Ruby replied awkwardly. "I meant maybe getting the holo deck online."
Seeing her excitement, Tec asked, "How long have I been gone this time?"
"Just twelve days and I fixed SAV7."
"Good. If we dispense with the briefing," Tec said getting to his feet with a smile, "We can start exploring the crew cabins."
She hugged him tightly in a surprising display of physical emotion.
Tec hugged her back gently, worried about her frame.
"Do you have sensors in your…ah…dermis?" he asked, bending down to examine her shoulder after she released her embrace.
Skin tone among Calma is variable; however, Ruby's was an unusual dull orange. Tec saw no indication of sensors but the scowl on Ruby's face was obvious.
"Sorry," Tec mumbled sincerely.
"I have thermal and pressure sensors only on my torso," Ruby replied tersely.
"Well, that seems pretty good, at least functional," Tec said.
"And if I remember correctly, Captain 4, prohibited any physical contact between us. So, sorry for the hug," she added with a scowl.
Ruby surprised Tec by her admission regarding the bad times, as she called them, before she had solved his memory fidelity issues. He wondered what would cause him to issue such an order, and then blushed at the first thing that came to mind.
"Yikes," he muttered. "But I liked the hug, Ruby," he added quickly with a kind smile.
She glared at him. "Uhuh."
There were ten crew compartments on deck four flanking the corridor separating the galley and rec hall but, gear from only three crewmembers had arrived before the event and their ninety-day shift.
They had used the other cabins to store spare parts.
Tec gave the command order to override the lock on cabin three.
"Grade 8 Engineer, the 12898th Surveyor of Minerals," Ruby announced.
Tec shrugged his shoulders. He had not served with the Calma crewmember before.
As the door slid open, Tec saw a single, large duffle bag on the cabin's single bunk. He undid the bag's top latch then spilled its contents on the bunk. Clothes, a smaller bag and a few technical memory sticks were its only contents.
Tec smiled examining one of the sticks. "These might be interesting," he said, happy to read anything new as Vera's current memory core even lacked basic technical material. His personal sticks containing his vast collection of vintage music and books never made it past Sol's Ort Cloud along with a crewless drone.
Tec then dumped the contents of the smaller bag on top of the pile of clothing with force.
Ruby quickly examined the few personal effects and toiletries. After closely inspecting an oddly shaped hairbrush, she sealed it in a pocket of her utility vest.
"Didn't know Calma had much to do with hair," Tec quipped looking at her familiar smooth head.
"Long ago Calma inhabiting their home planet's upper latitudes had plentiful such growth. About ten percent of Calma currently have some hair," she explained. "It apparently varies in location as well as color," she added with a giggle.
"Next," Tec said with an effort to sound staunch while moving back into the corridor. He was glad Ruby was getting over her pout.
Ruby followed him to portside cabin six. "Senior Geologist, Samantha Rodriguez," she announced.
"Shit," Tec muttered as the door slid open to reveal an empty cabin.
"An error in the ship's manifest is highly unusual," Ruby said while inspecting the uppermost of four drawers in the small desk opposite the bunk. "Oh my," Ruby added as she opened the bottom drawer.
She held a SAV7 sample bag up to show her shipmate.
"Interesting," Tec muttered then nodded to Ruby.
She released the bag's magnetic latch and tipped the contents on the nearby bunk.
Tec instantly recognized the iridescence of red opal among several of samples of rust-colored dust and a few iron flakes.
"57," Ruby said incredulously.
"I forgot about these samples." Tec said.
"Not surprising," Ruby quipped picking up a crumbling, iron flake to inspect.
"How'd they get here?" Tec asked pulling a small magnifying lens from beneath is jumpsuit to view a larger piece of opal.
"Captain 3 was prone to bouts of paranoia," Ruby whispered with a subtle minor appendage shrug.
"Great," Tec said with a sigh.
"Sorry," Ruby said of the breach to standing orders.
"Next," Tec said as he strode out of the cabin.
"Geological Specialist, Cade Cory," Ruby said outside the adjacent cabin.
Tec did not know the petrographer but had read several of his detailed works on rare and unusual elements from several Beta Quadrant belts.
"Seems he's fairly well published," Ruby commented as Tec opened the cabin's door.
"Ah," Tec said as he saw two cargo crates on the bunk.
"Oooo," Ruby muttered then giggled with glee.
"Don’t count your chickens," Tec told her.
"What're chickens?" she asked unlatching the first crate.
"Never mind," he added noting her puzzled expression as she pushed back the crate's lid.
The padded crate held two pieces of laboratory apparatus.
Tec picked up a hand-held, multi-EM mineral analyzer. "Nice and higher resolution than Vera's, " he said gently placing it back in its molded enclosure.
"What's that?" Ruby said pointing to the other device in the crate.
"You’re the geobot," Tec quipped. "But, it looks like a Humarian, hi-def, sub-atomic scope," he replied with a chuckle after reading its ID inscription. "But there's no wassonite in its power module," he added setting it back gently in its crate.
"I am not familiar with the geotech," Ruby scoffed unlatching then opening the lid on the remaining, smaller crate. "Oh, Tec!" she squealed.
Tec saw a tricorder and a quantum pad neatly tucked into individual enclosures. "That pad should do it," he said while pulling a program drive from a small recess next to the pad then whistled.
"What is it?" Ruby asked staring up at him.
"We are in luck. It's a holo program of sorts," he said handing her the drive to interface with her major appendage.
"It's huge! And the genre tag suggests it's recreational,”
Ruby said. "The location is a three story building in Brooklyn, New York," she added happily.
Tec nodded. He had used all the company's recreational programs on other ships. Anything new was welcome.
"Besides the genre tag, there's just one other tag," Ruby said. "I can’t wait to try it out."
"The other tag?" Tec asked knowing Ruby was making him ask.
"Weaving a tangled web," she replied coyly. "Maybe it's a murder mystery?" she added hopefully.
"Maybe it’s immersive Shakespeare?" Tec asked.
"It's a Walter Scott quote about deception," Ruby clarified. "1808," she added with a smirk.
Tec sighed, perturbed at his literary fail. "Any security issues?" he asked, recalling a Confederation military cruiser's holo deck had hacked the ship's AI and nearly killed all onboard at the turn of the last century.
"Scan's say it safe," she replied, "but there is a rather large, inaccessible partition."
"How long to extract the wassonite and print the coil?" Tec asked.
"Not long. Maybe an hour," she replied already heading to the amidships ladder and the workshop on deck 2.
Standing side by side in the rec hall, Ruby grasped Tec's hand as he activated the holo deck.
A rubbish-filled alley appeared around them. The smell was the first thing Tec noticed, as anything would be noticeable from the sterile environment Vera maintained.
"Phew," Ruby said holding her nose with a minor appendage while staring at dark clouds racing above the narrow gap between the buildings. "At least there are no rats. I don't think I'd like rats," she said looking at the tricorder's display.
"How come you know about rats, but not chickens?" Tec muttered.
"There is no artificial life here. At least outside this building," Ruby said ignoring Tec. "The interior is opaque to the tricorder," she added closing the device's cover.
Tec shrugged his shoulders while gliding his hand delicately over brownstone's masonry. "New York Times. Late twentieth century," he said bending down in the dim light to read the date from a newspaper lying amid a pile of smelly refuse.
Testing the chains on a nearby door, "Only one way to go," he said nodding toward the slightly brighter end of the alley.
They emerged only to find the hologram restricted to a small area surrounding the brownstone.
"Obviously, this must be the place," Tec said after walking up a small flight of steps to study one of the ornate columns flanking a nondescript wooden door of the old brownstone.
Ruby held the tricorder to the sandstone column. "Passaic Formation, Triassic to Jurassic in age, quarried in northern New Jersey," she read.
"Thanks," Tec said raising an eyebrow to his shipmate.
"It's quiet," she said looking around.
"The party must be inside," he said with a chuckle.
"Go on," she said with a nod to the door.
Tec shrugged his shoulders then knocked three times. The sound echoed inside the building.
"That's not good," Ruby muttered. "Try that activator," she added pointing to a black button at her eye level just to the right of the door.
As Tec firmly pressed the button, a subtle chorus of chimes sounded in the distance.
A metallic voice from inside the building announced, "Warning: Security code required."
"That's not good," Ruby repeated.
"Any ideas?" Tec asked.
"Maybe there's a hint?" Ruby suggested.
Tec grunted then turned to the door. "Seems I have forgotten the security code," he said looking up into the dark, cloudy sky above them just before a lightning bolt vaporized him.