The Birth of The Unity (sequel to Chronicle of Nautilus)

Chapter 11: The Body Snatching Begins

The first one to learn about Adam's death was the co-captain Ermac. When he did not meet the old man on their shift switch, he instantly figured what might have happened. Of course, the way the old man met his death was a great surprise. Heart failure, stroke, those were the reasons he hoped to see in the log. The murder was beyond his expectations, as it was beyond anyone's else on the ship.

The news spread like fire. A flood of messages requesting details on the incident followed. They were sent to everyone who might have provided an answer: the doc, Ermac, Jason, Jane. As they did not stop coming, Jason took the task of making a public explanation. His public letter, which was a detailed analysis of the murder scene without speculations on who could have pushed the trigger, satisfied everyone.

In the end of the letter, he added, "Contact me if you see anything suspicious happening in the ship." Incorporating the crew into his investigation was the initial thought behind making captain's death public. And since the crew was much more intelligent than the average of the human race, they sent very constructive notices and explanations of the suspicions they noticed around them.

He was not surprised he did not meet the pharmacist Nikki for the second time. She had died of organ failure. Grover identified that the cause of her death was an overdose of specific drugs and lack of urgent treatment. For a long while, Jason felt the guilt of Nikki's death on his shoulders. The schemer must have been covering all his tracks, now that his existence was exposed.

Two weeks passed and nothing strange happened.

Ermac took over the main shift while Jane followed instructions of Ermac's initial assistants during the second. His assistants were as cold and calculating as the co-captain himself. They strictly followed the procedures and never strayed away. If a situation arose, which could not be explained by the protocol, they would wake Ermac up in his sleep and ask for the guidance.

The upcoming two months would be tense for Ermac and his crew. Part of the tension were the malfunctions of engines. They became unreliable. They lost pressure too often, there were fluctuations in energy output even when the pressure was stable. To be safe, Ermac did something cruel to one of the men aboard, Chuck. Yet what he did, did not disturb him for at least a second. In his eyes, human expendability and sacrifice were necessary for mission success. Had it been him in Chuck's place he would have sacrificed himself instantly.

The old Chuck learned three things in one day. First, he had to prepare his new junior assistant Haas 17 in one week to be capable of handling the issues with the engines. Second, his own copy was being processed on extra fast notice. Third, he had two weeks remaining to live, but his vacation would be spent on training his assistant and his younger copy.

Haas 17, the junior engineer, has been pushed through necessary procedures by skipping all ceremonies. Disliking the push, Grover tried to reason with Ermac. He told that nothing good happens from rushing. Without making the daily tests, he explained, he could not guarantee that the engineer will be well. The cloning plant was not a factory, he said and added that it was humans they were reviving, not building golums out of clay. Avoiding perfection in revival was dangerous.

Ermac used his superiority and ignored Grover's remarks. The new crew members, he explained, must be functional and well for the given dates. The mission success was at stake and it was not the time for challenging the orders.

------

It was the third week after Adam's death. One week after Haas 17 was brought back to life and the day Chuck 18 was to wake up.

While Jason was looking for new clues and Ermac spent time teaching young Adam ship's operation in practice, Chuck 17 sat in the ward by Haas, nervously peeking at his own copy about to wake up on the opposite side of the room.