This is another old story. However, this one I finished to my satisfaction at the time. Then again, it took more than about three hours to write as well. (Black Eyes part two coming soon.)

Sabotage

It was funny, the way people could surprise you. Sometimes they do the strangest things.

He was only the ship's doctor, not trained to deal with a mechanical emergency like the cargo bay being locked accidentally, never mind deliberately by someone who'd taken a welding torch to it.

This was a real problem. Not only was most of the survival gear in the cargo bay, so was most of the crew. In cryostasis, where he'd put them. And the colonists, too.

Fortunately, the computer was still on course. No emergency there. Dealing with the cargo bay door was proving to be quite impractical, so he decided to try and figure out who had done it.

Not easily solved either. Had to be one of the crew or the colonists. Any of them might have been woken up early if the computer decided their stasis was in trouble. So, for some reason somebody decided to seal the bay. Why?

It got weirder, too. He'd searched the ship, and couldn't find anyone. So ... either somebody had hidden very well, or had sealed him out of the bay while staying inside.

Might as well risk speaking. "Hello? Is anyone there? It's Dr. Kanaka."

He heard footsteps ... inside ... running away? That's odd. "Will you let me in?"

Now, just quiet. Oh, well. Time to see what the computer would say about breaking down welded-shut cargo bay doors. He had to get inside. The planet was getting closer, and if he didn't get the crew out to run the ship, it would crash.

The computer's voice-recognition wasn't working. Again. It kept on asking him to enunciate more clearly. So, he had to type his question.

The computer thought for a bit, and then recommended going to the security lockup, getting a thermal exciter, and using it on the cargo door. Sure. There were enough facilities on planet to get a cargo door repaired.

The thermal exciter did its job. Pretty soon, the cargo door was melted enough for him to get through it. He stepped inside.

The cargo bay was well in order. Hm. Well, he had to start getting the crew out of stasis, anyway.

"Let's see here." Most of them were still in stasis. There were five who had woken up. He started the computer going, thawing the remaining crew out, and started to look for the other five.

There they were: Andrews, Simmonds, King, Boutilier and Jacobs. Funny. They were all tied up and gagged. So who was it that had run away from the door earlier?

Naturally, he untied them. The thawing was going without a hitch. They all had the same story: somebody had snuck up behind them and knocked them over the head. They all had bruises in the right spots. But a sixth person could not have got into the bay without leaving a trace, and he hadn't found one. So one of them was lying.

Well, at least Simmonds and Jacobs seemed eager to go to their posts. The other three were colonists. So, he let the two go; neither had a concussion, and the ship needed them on duty.

Later, of course, Captain Wilson wanted to know why the thawing had been late. So, he told her the whole story.

Wilson was furious. "Damn! Why would anyone have done anything like that?"

"Well, I'm not a psychiatrist, but my guess is that one of the five was trying to commit suicide by crashing the ship. I can't think of any other possibility."

Wilson gave him a long, hard look. "And you don't know which one of the five it was?"

"No. I could probably do some tests, but it would take about two or three days to determine which one needs psychiatric help."

"Yeah. Well, we're docking in six hours, and the colonists have to be transferred then."

"That's not enough time for me. Can you delay the dock?"

"No, I can't. We're already in the flight path, and if we break out, it's a contract violation. They wouldn't pay us. We'd be stranded on Elysium; no way home."

"Well...."

"What's more, I can't transfer someone who's mentally unstable. If the Elysium people found out, they'd shoot the whole lot of them as potential troublemakers. Eighty dead people. As soon as word spread, I'd never get another contract anywhere in space, either."

This little glitch, execution of mental patients, was something he hadn't known about. "Wait a minute...."

She ignored him. "And I can't afford to take those three colonists to Point of Light. We're barely making enough to cover life-support needs for our trip with our current load."

He was beginning to become very upset.

"We'll just have to shoot them. And confine Simmonds and Jacobs to quarters until you've had a chance to run your tests on them."

He was aghast.

It was a terrible pity that he had nothing to say: no argument to make. Maybe she was right. She couldn't have been; it was just wrong for her to be. But the three were shot anyway, and listed as cryostasis failures.

Simmonds and Jacobs both checked out fine. Well ... At least one of the three had wanted to be killed.