The Juggernaut (Juggernaut #1)

Thirteen

Malachi thought for a moment before answering. The truth wasn't always welcome. "I don't think so, Tila. I'm sorry. I wish I could help but I just can't be sure. The thing is, anyone could register a commercial ship with the same name as one of the colony ships as long as they used a different port authority. The transponder chip would confirm it for sure either way but I haven't found it yet."

"Is that unusual?"

He shrugged. "I guess."

Ellie brushed her hair from her eyes with the back of her hand to avoid touching her face with dirty fingers.

"What does a transponder do?"

"It IDs the ship for navigation and fleet comms," Malachi explained.

"You know, the nameplate from the console is missing too," said Tila.

"But we know what the ship is called," Ellie pointed out.

"The nameplate I took from Eclipse had the port authority on it."

"So?"

"So, the nameplate would link this ship to a specific port. We would know which Far Horizon this is," Tila replied.

"Okay, that's unusual," Malachi admitted.

"Not if someone is trying to hide what this ship is, or where it's been," she pointed out.

Malachi hesitated, then said, "Maybe." He returned to the underside of the console with Ellie and continued to look thoughtful.

Tila watched them start another argument over how best to reach the remaining innards of the console.

Ellie protested that she couldn't reach anything while Malachi continued to insist that she could. He collected more small cuts and scrapes every time Ellie challenged him to reach something she said was too difficult, and then the moment he agreed with her she plucked them out for him anyway.

It dawned on Tila that Ellie made a fuss just so she could prove to Malachi how indispensable she really was. It was obvious now she saw them working together like this. Ellie couldn't do anything apart from win races and look pretty, so when she had the chance she made a big deal about how essential she was. As Tila listened to them bicker, she also realised that Malachi knew. He was kind enough to indulge her.

After declaring at last that there was nothing else of value in the console, Malachi took his tools back from Ellie and began to carefully pry tiny components free from the circuit boards they had cut out. He neatly trimmed back the wires Ellie had cut.

"Sorry, Tila, all the good stuff is gone. The transponder's not there. We looked, but..." He left the sentence hanging.

"We?" said Ellie, wiping her dirty hands on the upholstered seat-back. Without looking Malachi threw some small, useless part at her which bounced off her forehead.

Tila sighed. This was going nowhere. She wanted answers, but most of all she wanted hope. So far, all she had gained from their expedition was more questions. But somehow the ship felt wrong. It nagged at her, this little hauler buried so far inside the city. It should have been at the surface.

But what reason would anyone have to hide it? It was just a hauler. It had no value.

So why did it bother her?

Tila stared at the blade in Malachi's hand.

"Mal."

"Yeah?"

"How come there are so many chips missing?"

"Probably because another salvage team went over the ship before it was abandoned here."