Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode One: Not a Good day to die #3

Fox left the other men to get ready for the ceremonial handing over of the station. He had never felt so out of his depths and he would have backed out a dozen times if he didn't know that Lannister was counting on him personally. But how was he supposed to rise to this challenge?

On the Cambridge he knew his place and his job. He felt confident and in control. The last seven weeks he had worked alongside the Corelean's security team. He was just starting to feel like he knew enough to work alongside them, but certainly not enough to command a department. And on the Corelean the security department had been tiny, a mere four people. Now he was in command of much larger station, with several dozen personnel under him.

"Urgent system message, from Harin to Fox," a disembodied voice said.

"Yes," Fox replied.

Harin's bald head appeared in front of Fox. The chief data engineer was sitting in front of some display that Fox couldn't see, but zie kept looking down causing hir's chins to roll double.

Zie, hir, the gender neutral pronouns had never gained much acceptance outside of a few educated, liberal circles on Earth. In fact, only Dan Oleson had heard the terms before the consortium decided they were the easiest way for the translation system to deal with third gender distinctions that didn't exist in English. It was taking Fox some getting used to, but he thought he was getting there.

Harin was speaking rapidly, forcing Fox to bring his attention to the present. "We have detected a strange grouping of chemicals. Mostly neutral by themselves, and nothing we've worried about coming onboard. But they seem to be grouping into a volatile compound. I have no clue what to make of it. Chief Chief wanted me to bring you into the loop." The current security chief, the man who would become Fox's second in command in a couple hours, was named Kellii. It meant, in the Turik's mother tongue, chief. After several weeks of gentle ribbing from the Corelean crew about small minded officers, Fox found it funny to have his counterpart be Chief Chief.

"I am displaying the chemical signatures and their English names," Harin was saying.

Fox stared at the gibberish that was now displaying itself in front of him. "Can you include common names?" He'd never taken chemistry and with out a PhD he probably wouldn't have been able to decipher the symbols anyway. The common names, on the other hand...

"What do you mean, coming together?" he asked, his anxiety peaking.

"Meaning someone or something is mixing them at a specific location."

"Give me the location."

Fox recognized the location, his heart hammered. "Fuck!" he spat out. "I'll kill him." Harin's eyes went wide. "Just a figure of speech," Fox lied. "Give me the fastest route and put a team on the way as well."

Harin nodded and the route appeared displayed in front of Fox. He shoved it to his side so he could see and pelted down the hallway, keeping the directions in his mind.

"The volatility is peaking rapidly," Harin said, zie's voice tight. "I fear we could have an explosion. That's a rimward section. We can not have an explosion there."

Fox waited until he was in a lift and rising before he answered. "Understand," he panted. "Know..."

"You know what it is?"

"It's a drug...if it doesn't explode first that is...." The lift opened and there was no time for further explanation. The long stretch of hallway was empty. Ahead he hit an intersection and a closed door leading into the Shoshone section. "Open, security," he yelled and the door slid open for him.