Radiance: Part One

L3: Mutiny

Lyda felt a bit stupid, standing in the conference room by herself. She hadn't even called the meeting yet. She pressed her palms to her eyes. It was so much to take in. The data showed that there had in fact been one person awake for most of the trip, and that was Vanessa.

She'd woken up once every three months for a handful of days at a time before going back to sleep. The other members of the crew had only been awake for the first year of the trip before something made them decide to all go to sleep. She decided she'd chat with each of them one on one before she called the meeting. The only reason she'd come down here was to see Vyrik off. She sauntered back to the lift and returned to the bridge. Javian was on controls, as he was supposed to be, Vanessa was nowhere to be seen. The other three should have been close by, but only herself, Javian, and one other, a young woman named Thwarta, were on the bridge.

"Javian?" He jumped at the sound of his own name.

"Yes?" He sounded perturbed.

"Where is the rest of the crew?" Her stomach began to form knots on itself.

Thwarta piped in, "Vanessa is in the infirmary with Marnie, and Jora is in the mess hall getting us some coffee."

"Can I ask you guys a question?" it wasn't quite one-on-one, but she would have to manage with what she had.

Javian swiveled around in his chair to face her, his normal, somewhat flirty, casual smile in place. "Go for it, Captain."

Thwarta nodded, "It would be kind of fucked-up to not answer you."

Lyda chuckled a bit, but let her laughter die into severity.

"Why did you all go to sleep after only one year?" She stood sternly, hands on her hips.

"Was that not ...the protocol?" Javian's smile faded into obscurity that could have been masking concern.

"You were meant to be awake for the entire trip. We all went through the training exercises together, did we not?"

"Well, we all trained under Vanessa...Since she was going to be our captain, or so we thought." Thwarta said, her gaze dropping to the floor.

"Wait...you underwent a different training? By who's orders?" The knots tightened at her core, threatening to implode her.

"Vanessa said she was captain..." Javian said, discomfort painting his face.

"But she's not, guys. Everyone else knew who the captain was, other than myself- how did you not?"

"Vanessa said..." Thwarta drew off, furrowing her brow in obvious frustration.

"I'm starting to see a pattern, here." Lyda said, running hands over her face. This wasn't adding up the way she had hoped. She looked at Javian. "So you didn't undergo training with professor Gingheart?" He shook his head. "You either?" she looked at Thwarta, who also shook her head. "So Vanessa told all of you that she was the captain and you just believed her and did everything she said?" Lyda looked at them incredulously.

"Why would she lie?" Thwarta asked her, confusion painting her soft features as she looked away.

"I don't know..." Javian sighed. "What do we do, Captain?" They both looked up to her.

"How do I know that you guys aren't just throwing me through a loop here?" Lyda crossed her arms tightly over her chest.

Thwarta raised her right hand as if in oath, "I swear on my life, I had no idea, Lyda, you've known me for almost my entire life, I have no reason to lie to you."