Over the past few weeks, I have been helping the engineers from New Eden re-design, re-outfit, and massively expand the Astral Zephyr. Primarily my job has been to ensure integration between the Linked Systems technology and the somewhat more advanced technology of New Eden, along with learning how the New Eden technology works, and how to repair it if things go wrong.
The Astral Zephyr has already more than tripled in size, much to the delight of its AI, and a number of new capabilities have been added. Among the most recent additions was a very impressive sensor suite, capable of scanning ships in a variety of ways, and interpreting the data to provide a wealth of information. I turned the sensors on the Astral Zephyr to familiarize myself with them, and almost immediately found an anomaly. (Plus another surprising reading.)
I was surprised to find that life-signs were being read in the doctor’s quarters. To my knowledge, the doctor has remained planet-side, helping build a new body for Susana. I called down, and found that he was still there. The other two alternatives, I imagined, were that either he had a guest who simply stayed in his room, despite him being down on the surface, or that we had a stowaway. I decided to investigate.
I used my engineering override to override his front door, found and empty room, then checked my compad, which said the person was hiding in a closet. I called out to the closet, telling the person to come out, that I wasn’t going to be angry. There was no response. So I crept up on the closet, and pulled it open.
I’m going to be very direct here, since all my efforts to say this nicely have failed. Inside the closet was a nude human male, lying upon a stretcher, being fed by IV tubes, missing most of his skin, and possibly more missing other parts as well. On his torso, there were numerous other wounds, and there has been some sort of device merged into the man’s neck. Worse of all, he was still alive and conscious, his bloodshot eyes tracking my every movement, terror written plainly across his features.
I knew the man, too, and I realized that I was partly responsible for this. The captain and I had, as per the doctor’s request, restrained both the wretched Whitevale and his man Clark—the one who had flayed the doctor at Whitevale’s request—while dumping the rest of the soldiers into a crate. I didn’t really think much of them after that, as I was… distracted.
But now I know. Clark wound up in the doctor’s room, and the doctor took his revenge by paralyzing the man (he did not move anything below the neck while I was there) and torturing him in turn. And, apparently, continuing to torture him, as some sort of plaything, during the last few weeks. The worse part—to me, I suppose—is that I was in the room on multiple occasions, not more than a meter away from Clark, and never even knew it.
Which raises the question of what to do. I am incredibly uneasy with Dr. Tanaka right now, but on the other hand, he is the one who saved dear Susana, and is continuing to save her. I will not take any action against the doctor until Susana is fully recovered, and does not require his help. But… after that? Do we even have a choice? None of the Edenites are joining the crew, and the nearest doctor is probably on Telivoni, happily practicing medicine. I should probably tell the rest of the crew, but what purpose would that serve? Simply make us all uncomfortable with Dr. Tanaka? Will that help things?
And part of me says that Clark deserves what is happening to him. Rationally I know that he wasn’t the one who gave the order, but he was the one stabbing the knife into her, ripping it downwards. There’s a part of me that hates him, and just can’t be moved to care. He could have refused the order, he could have been gentler, so she lived. I don’t think Dr. Tanaka is doing is just, but… I think there’s some ugly part of me that applauds him, and hates myself for not having done what he did.
Lastly… the ship’s AI knows about this. It had a camera in that room, just as it has a camera everywhere. It knows what the doctor did, it knows what I saw, and it knows what I am writing here. And it did nothing. What does that say about the AI that the captain has chosen to lead us?
I feel sick.
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