"Bugguffin" (Part 4)

The Moon Station Series Episode 25.4

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February 9, 2051

Gonzalez shook his head. “I will ask the station guards to take the other prisoners out—unless they have anything to say?”

Station Guard Stewart hefted a dazed Barclay to his feet. The engineer groaned.

Baines only snarled as Station Guard Hernandez cuffed him, Claire covering Quinn with her weapon.

Gonzalez turned back to Izzy. “But the pilots stay.”

“All right.”

“And you’ll both be handcuffed and fully searched for weapons.”

“Fair,” Quinn answered.

The guards didn’t find any weapons on them other than their electrical pistols, which they confiscated. When they checked their boots, they found two thin plastic bags, one in Izzy’s left boot and one in Quinn’s. Each thin bag held an even thinner envelope.

Station Guard Hernandez eyed the one he’d found, then glanced at the one his partner held up. An unspoken agreement seemed to pass between them, and they returned the envelopes to where they’d found them. Station Guard Hernandez turned to the general. “I think we should have these analyzed for any toxins or communicable diseases, sir.”

Gonzalez nodded. “I’ll have a doctor collect them.”

“Yes sir.” The guards spoke together, then left with the other two prisoners.

The general focused on Izzy and Quinn. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

“The contents of those letters, actually.” Quinn looked him in the eyes. “When you read them, you’ll find that they’re from the government, authorizing us to quietly look for rebels at the station and do whatever we can to disrupt them here and through their networks.”

“Networks?” Claire asked.

Quinn faced her. “Yeah. The rebels have more than one.”

He turned back to the general. “They also have at least two opposing factions. We haven’t figured out what caused the division, but some of the rebels on Earth are working with the ones in space, and some of them are not—in fact, they’re actively fighting them. But some are fighting them while they pretend to work with them. That’s where we were supposed to come in.”

Alex frowned. “The government wanted you to trick one set of rebels into thinking you were working for them against the others?”

“Yeah.” Quinn didn’t take his eyes off the general. “We were given the letters in case something went wrong—if we were suspected by our own side, for instance.”

His jaw tightened. “And in case our words needed extra weight. So, after the letters are checked for contamination, we ask you to read them and then contact the people who signed them. They’ll tell you. And watch your back while you’re doing all of this, because I don’t think half your people can be trusted.”

Quinn turned to Claire. “I don’t know if you’re involved—you were friends with my friend once, so I hope you aren’t—particularly since you know what the rebels are like.”

Claire’s spine tightened. He knew she’d been captured.

He went on. “We know Fletcher’s involved, or he wouldn’t have lied about seeing the engineers give me the diagram. Pilot Goldberg watched for me while I grabbed it—which I did to help catch those engineers and expose them as rebels—and he told me Fletcher was speaking to the oh-so-trustworthy Close while I was collecting the paper.

“Since Close was the only one who got close to Pilot Goldberg’s bag—when he tripped and fell into it—we figured he took the diagram. At first, we thought he was after rebels too, and suspected us, but if he had, he would have reported us when the theft took place, and he didn’t.

“In fact, I suspect he worked with Fletcher and Linton to help set us up. Fletcher lied about our activities. Linton spilled paint on me so he could take my jacket. Close provided the stolen diagram which Linton sewed into my jacket.

“I’ve got to hand it to the three of you—I never would have seen that coming. Not even after Linton brought the cleaned jacket back and asked me to try it on to make sure it hadn’t shrunk. Unless…” His voice trailed off.

Out of her peripheral, Claire saw the general glancing between her and Alex. Without taking her eyes off the other two, she nodded, and guessed Alex did the same.

I believe them too, sir.

The general broke the silence. “You are right that Pilot Fletcher didn’t see you. Engineer Close did. There was a report about what happened—given to me in person, and then sent again, directly to my CID, so we’d have an electronic record of it to work with. Pilot Price is the one who lied. Not for nefarious purposes, but to draw out the rebel engineers.”

Quinn nodded slowly, as if the general had confirmed what he was already thinking. “Thank you for telling us that, sir.”

Gonzalez nodded. “If you were rebels—particularly ones with allies in the government—you would already know from reports that all three of them have been instrumental in fighting the rebels, in which case, your complaints against them would only be a futile effort to throw my suspicion on them.”

Izzy spoke. “We have read those reports sir, but we couldn’t help but wonder.”

The general smiled. “No, they did not decide to betray the country. Nor do I believe you did. However, until we can read your letters and confirm they are genuine, you will remain in your room, guarded by other pilots.”

“We can stay in holding cells, sir,” Quinn answered. “That would preserve our cover if there are other rebels on board.”

Brigadier General Gonzalez shook his head. “None of them would be able to visit you, and if we allowed you CIDs, that would make them suspicious. We would have to release you before long anyway. It would be better if you avoided it completely. Besides, by working with us to apprehend the engineers here, you can still maintain your cover with the other faction.”

“Thank you, sir.” Quinn smiled for the first time since he’d entered the room. “There is one other thing. We have a contact on Earth who sent us to retrieve the diagram and send a picture of it to him so he could see what progress is being made on building a magnetic field.

“He suspected the opposing faction here was preventing rebels on Earth from getting an accurate report of what they were working on by concealing some of their designs from the Head of Engineering, whose reports to the government the rebels on Earth somehow get access to. He gave us a code to get us into a network where we could upload an image of the diagram.

“We have another contact working for the rebels here who gave us a code to get into their network here. That’s where Baines and Barclay thought we’d be sending the diagram, to their teammates in space, wherever they are—they keep their location secret from a lot of their people—”

Maybe that’s why Taylor, Harley, and Yorke were killed, Claire thought. Maybe they knew too much, and their side thought they’d tell the government—

“But the government gave us a fake diagram to send to both factions instead. If the rebels build the magnetic field it depicts, they’ll burn a lot of time and resources and get nothing for it—it’s designed to not work.

“But if you check the intranet logs, you’ll see I logged off the intranet—I did that to access the networks and send the fake diagram to them.”

“Thank you.” Temporary Station Head Gonzalez smiled again. “Pilots Fletcher and Price will uncuff you and escort you to your quarters.”

____________________________________________________________________________

Colton stacked rations on an empty corner table, then took a seat that put his back to a wall. From there, he could watch the room while he waited for his friends. They hoped to have dinner together after their long day. He’d been in engineering for most of it, but Topaz had been by multiple times to update him, for which he was very grateful—he’d been worried about Claire and the other four.

After Alex and Claire had taken Izzy and Quinn to their room, they’d joined Topaz for their afternoon patrol, then waited with her in the medical bay while Autumn and Henry checked the needle and examined Quinn and Izzy’s letters and the bags they’d been stored in.

Once the doctors had determined the latter items weren’t contaminated, the group had brought them back to Gonzalez, and he’d contacted the officials who’d written and signed the letters.

The officials confirmed the letters were genuine, but the general still asked his own people to look into the situation too. As far as they could tell, Quinn and Izzy were on America’s side.

The general was concerned about—and more than a little angry over—his government’s keeping that information from him.

If he had known the pilots were on their own mission, he could have assisted them or at least stayed out of their way. Instead, everyone’s wires had ended up crossed—his own words, according to Topaz—and two innocent pilots were nearly arrested.

My fault, not his. Colton’s stomach turned. He was grateful to have been wrong about Quinn and Izzy, but he hated that he’d nearly gotten them sent back to Earth as traitors.

Izzy entered the rec area from the corridor directly in front of him. He and Quinn were now free to walk around the station.

Colton tensed as the pilot’s eyes met his, and then Izzy moved toward him.

Before Colton could speak, Izzy asked, “May I talk with you, Engineer Close?”

Colton nodded. “Would you like to sit?”

“Thank you.” Izzy sat across from him. “I’m going to meet Quinn in the pilots’ bay—to find our space fighters’ locations for tomorrow—but I wanted to thank you again for the electrical pistols.”

Colton assumed Izzy wasn’t actually thinking about the pistols—he was just being nice after what happened. “I’m sorry I came up with that plan to catch you. If I had left it alone—”

“No need to be sorry.” Izzy smiled a little. “If I’d been in your position, I would have done the same thing. You were right about the situation, you just didn’t have the full picture.”

“…Thank you.”

“Thank you for all you’ve done to protect this station—and our country.” Izzy smiled again. “I’ve heard about some of it.”

Colton frowned. “Did Alex—”

“No, I read it in reports.” Izzy rose. “Alex hasn’t talked to me much. It’s too bad since…Never mind.”

“Pilot Goldberg—”

“Izzy.”

“Izzy. Were you about to mention that you and Alex fought a group of engineers?”

Izzy looked at him. “Did he tell you about that?”

Colton nodded.

“Then why didn’t he say something when we met in engineering?”

“He probably assumed you would. And when you didn’t, he probably thought you didn’t remember.”

Izzy half-smiled. “He could have said something.”

“He probably thought it’d make things awkward—and he really doesn’t like making people feel awkward or uncomfortable.”

Izzy cracked a full grin. “Could have fooled me in that fight. Not that those cadets didn’t deserve it, ambushing him with weapons.”

Colton suppressed a shudder, even though he knew Alex and Izzy had won.

Izzy’s smile faded. “I’ll leave you alone now.”

“Thank you for talking with me.”

For the briefest moment, Izzy looked surprised. Then he smiled again. “Thanks.” He hesitated. “I’d like to do it again.”

Colton understood now why Izzy hadn’t kept in contact with Alex and Claire—he’d probably thought they’d make the first move if they wanted to. “So would I—you and Quinn are welcome to join us for dinner…or any time you’d like the company.” He thought of Gerard. “Unless you think it would hurt your cover.”

“Thank you…I’ll talk to him about it when I see him.”

Colton hesitated, then decided to voice his question. “If it’s not too personal, is your name short for Isaiah?”

“No, Israel. That’s where my mother’s from.” Izzy’s expression turned serious. “My father’s ancestors fled Germany to escape the Holocaust and came to America. If my mother’s family hadn’t moved to the U.S. over two decades ago, they never would have met…That’s one of the things I love most about America. People who otherwise wouldn’t meet can find each other in our land of freedom…That’s why I’d die to protect it.”

He started to leave, then glanced back. “I’ll…see you around?”

“I’ll see you.”

The pilot smiled again, slowly, then left the rec area.

Henry appeared a few moments later and sat across from Colton. “Autumn’s speaking with the general again, but she’ll meet us. Alex and Claire are with them too.”

“Thank you for letting me know. I invited Izzy and Quinn to have dinner with us.”

“Good.” Henry smiled.

Colton lowered his voice. “Do you and Autumn know what’s in the needle?”

Henry let his breath out. “Not yet. She’s discussing that with the general. They will probably have to contact someone in the government and ask if they can identify it from the data we’ve compiled. The needle is small—easy to conceal. There could be more—not again—look out!”

Colton turned.

A black streak shot into his lap, and a chuckle reached his ears as Topaz took a seat on the side opposite the other wall. “I figure she needs exercise now and then, and she doesn’t mind sprinting if it’s to someone she loves.”

Colton grinned and stroked the already purring Bugguffin.

Henry kept his eyes on the cat as he took a ration packet from its stack.

“I’ve got her, Henry.” Colton tried to put his friend’s mind at ease. Topaz had told him why Henry was uncomfortable around Bugguffin, and he didn’t want to make it worse.

Especially since Bugguffin was now eyeing Henry.

Henry sighed. “I know—I don’t dislike her, Colton. In fact, since Barr visited the medical bay insisting he needed stitches for what she did—which he did not, he only needed a bandage—I’ve liked her much more than I did before.”

“Henry, what if you tried petting her just a little?” Topaz asked. “You don’t have to let her on your lap, of course, but…well, you should get to enjoy her company too.”

“…All right.” Henry let her sniff his hand first.

She licked it, and he jerked back.

“I think that was meant to be friendly…” Colton felt awful.

“I know.” Henry looked embarrassed. He tried again, and Bugguffin licked him, but that time he didn’t pull back. Not even when she rubbed her head against the backs of his fingers.

Topaz grinned.

Colton smiled at Henry. “I think she’s cleaning you.”

Bugguffin licked his hand again, then rubbed her head more vigorously against it.

That time Henry pulled back. “No, she isn’t cleaning me—she’s using me to clean herself!”

Thank you for reading “Bugguffin” (Part 4). Read Part 1 of the next episode, “Informed Consent,” here.

The previous installment in this series is “Bugguffin” (Part 3). Read it here.

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