Eve On Station

Chapter Six

Eve took the security lift that Fitzgibbons had shown her down to the Engineering Level at the bottom of the hub. Stepping out of the lift, she found herself in a vast space that was a little overwhelming. While it was just another level on the lift controls, the ceiling soared high overhead at five times the height of the other standard levels. Eve realized she should have expected something like this since you didn't fit a fusion reactor and the huge hydrogen fuel tanks, not to mention all the other essential systems engineering contained in a closet.

"Can I help you ma'am?" asked a small woman with light brown skin and short dark hair, standing up from a nearby console and walking towards Eve. At first she had looked concerned, possibly about an intruder into this highly secure and dangerous area, but her face had lightened when she took in Eve's badge and the security symbol on it.

"I hope so," replied Eve, "I'm Eve Gold, the new head of security and I'm looking for Chief Engineer Null."

'Oh yes ma'am, we all got the memo about your appointment," replied the woman turning to point. "That's Chief Engineer Null over there at the main control console."

"Thank-you," replied Eve as she paused to peer at the woman's name badge, "Ms. Santana," and with a final nod, Eve strode towards the indicated person.

Eve had thought 'Null' was a slightly odd name, but she understood it when the Chief Engineer turned around and stood up to greet her when they heard Eve approaching. Chief Engineer Null was dressed in a plain green coverall like the rest of the engineering staff, but while others like Maria Santana still showed clearly male or female characteristics, Null looked totally androgynous. Their blonde hair was cut extremely close with no sign of make-up or anything else that indicated a gender.

As with Ms. Santana, Eve didn't bother to offer to shake hands as that custom had largely fallen out of favour except for special symbolic gestures of friendship or acceptance as had happened with Sam and Hardy. "I'm ..," Eve began.

"Eve Gold, the new head of security," finished Null. "I heard you tell Maria that and I can see your ID badge. I have both extremely good hearing and vision." Null paused and then broke into an unexpected grin, "and I am also a bit of a brat at times."

"I will keep that in mind," replied Eve with a matching grin as she found herself taking an instant liking to this person which was a relief after her initial interactions with Kathy and Dr. Lee. "I don't know if the memo went into any more detail as I have spent most of my time here cleaning up my new office, but I am investigating the death of the man found in the transient quarters."

Null made a face, "I liked Captain Demery and I'm sorry he is missing, but that office of his was a health hazard. I was in it once and swore I would never go in there again."

Eve looked around the huge engineering area and saw everything was absolutely spotless and shining with nothing just laying around or out of place. It was almost too perfect for Eve who suddenly found that she preferred a space that looked lived in, though not to the extent Demery's office had been. Eve didn't want to touch anything down here in case she left a scuff mark or a fingerprint on the gleaming surfaces. Eve gave herself a mental shake and brought her gaze back to Null. "I was hoping you could provide me with some information Chief Engineer Null."

"Of course," replied Null. "What is it you would like to know Ms. Gold?"

"Call me Eve please," replied the blonde. "It seems that whoever killed our John Doe had to either have total access to the computer systems of the station, or else the ability to hack them. Surveillance camera footage and door logs have been erased or altered. I am trying to compile a list of the people that could do that."

"This is the first I've heard about this," replied Null with a frown. "Only three people, Captain Demery, Administrator Reynolds and myself have complete access."

"What about people that have the ability to hack the system?" asked Eve.

"Maria is my head assistant," replied Null after a moment. "She has access to most things, but not to some of the security systems you mentioned. I'm sure she has the ability to hack just about anything though, or I wouldn't have her as my assistant." Before Eve could say anything in reaction to this, Null raised their voice and called over to the woman, "Maria have you been hacking the security systems?"

Maria turned around in her chair and somewhat surprisingly to Eve didn't seem offended at all by her supervisor's question. "Not me boss," she said "I'm too busy working on my other illegal activities, but please don't tell security about it."

"Are you still trying to make beer? " asked Null. "I thought you would have got that working by now."

"What can I say?" replied Maria, "I'm a lousy engineer boss. The stuff still kills the mice when I give it to them."

"Mice," repeated Null, "I thought you had talked Ralph Adams on Beta shift into being your Guinea pig? He's always complaining about how much imported beer costs on the station thanks to Transteller's high shipping fees."

"Oh, he's such a wuss," replied Maria with a wave of her hand. "He only had to get Dr. Lee to pump his stomach once and he said he was done sampling my crap."

"I take it that is your way of saying that you don't think it was anyone in Engineering who hacked the system," said Eve dryly.

"I know my people and I'm willing to swear that none of them did it," affirmed the Chief Engineer. "I will take a look at the systems involved though and see if there is any sign of a hack and if there is, if there are any clues to who did it."

"I would appreciate that," replied Eve and she started to turn to leave, but Null put up a hand to stop her.

"There is someone you should talk to," the engineer said. "He doesn't work for me and he's not even supposed to be using computers for anything but basic functions since he is on probation for another six months but ...," they trailed off.

"But you aren't sure this person is following his probation orders?" asked Eve.

"Yeah, I'm almost certain he isn't," agreed Null. "He's actually a good kid and I wouldn't rat him out like this except it's a murder. I am sure he isn't capable of killing anyone, but he might not be able to resist an opportunity to do some hacking. He was suspended from school last year for deleting all the student marks."

"I did hear something about that," replied Eve. "Can you provide a name?"

"Benjamin Nyota," replied Null. "He goes by Ben. You can probably find him either at home or in the food court on Plus Two. They gave him a couple of thousand hours of community service as part of his probation, so he is cleaning tables and picking up trash there at least eight hours a day to work it off."

"A couple of thousand?" commented Eve with a raised eyebrow, "he really must have pissed someone off."

"I've heard you met Ms. Reynolds," replied Null simply, "she's not the forgive and forget type."

Eve nodded, "I'm starting a rebellion and thinking of her as Kathy," replied Eve as she headed for the lift. She was halfway to it when she suddenly swayed on her feet and collapsed to her knees on the floor.