“I...” She tried to speak, but her mind struggled between a lie and the truth. After the opportunity Dylan had given her she didn't want to lie, but she knew she had to stop Thomas and the others from thinking it was true.
“When the Thorian found me and I wasn't sleeping, I had to tell him something. I knew he'd be the protective type and wouldn't report me if I provided the right story. He had picked up on my fear of being aboard the ship and I told him that was why.” As she said it she tried to look at the Captain, willing him to believe it and let her leave the room, but a small part of her hoped he wouldn't, hoped that he'd understand why she had to deny it.
“So you lied to Varl?” Anger flashed through Dylan's blue eyes. She dropped her head, hoping it would signal her guilt. The words to confirm it didn't want to leave her mouth, but he took her slump how she intended it, as did the rest of the room. Conversation erupted all around her and the Captain had to call everyone to order again.
As the room quieted the Thorian stood up and spoke, “As Auraylia Mellarn has admitted to the charges and no solid evidence has been found in defence of her actions, she is hereby dismissed from Fleet staff. From this point on she is stripped of rank, and uniform and a record of this trial will be attached to her official citizen reports.”
“Thomas, have Auraylia taken to the brig until we reach our next planet,” Dylan said as soon as the Thorian had finished speaking. She stood up as panic filled her.
“M... m... may I have a final request?” she stammered out. The Thorian raised an eyebrow but no one spoke. They all went silent waiting for her to voice it. “Can you be the only person with a key to my cell, Captain?”
“Why?” He stared at her and she tried to plead with only her eyes.
“I would prefer it.”
“No, I have far more important matters to attend to than be bothered with minding you.”
“Then the Thorian... Please?”
“No, unless you can explain your request.”
She looked away again, trying to find the words, but he motioned for Thomas to fetch her, and the officers all left before she could think of a way to ask without arousing suspicion. Lifting her head, she tried to look unfazed and emotionless about the decision. Despite her best efforts, by the time Thomas reached her and took her arm to escort her back to the brig she shook so violently she had trouble walking.
Innocence Unravelled
A headache threatened to overpower Dylan's thoughts as he tried to look over the reports Doug had sent him. The bots had repaired almost eighty percent of the damage since the last battle and the fuel cells were already over half full after only four hours in the intense sunlight, but there were a few anomalies in the level of power use. Doug suspected something hadn't been repaired quite right and was draining extra energy. Until he could figure out what it was, he recommended they stay near the star.
Reports had never been Doug's strong point, however, and it had already taken Dylan an hour to get half way through the information. Someone needed to give the Engineering Officer a dictionary and show him what the words he was using actually meant.
Giving up, Dylan put the data pad down and sat back. He needed more sleep, but most of all he wished he could reverse time. In his career he'd made a few mistakes and chalked them up to lessons learnt along the way, but this latest one left him feeling sour and unhappy. It wasn't even that buying a slave had cost him so many credits, but her betrayal had hurt. Trusting her and then finding she was deceitful and manipulative made him feel like someone had smeared slime on the essence of him.
A knock on his door disturbed him from his thoughts and a second later Beth and Varl walked in. They both looked at each other before Beth took the plunge to tell him whatever bothered them both.
“We think there's still more to this case with Auraylia.”
“I think I've had enough of dealing with her.”
“Yes, I kinda thought you might, but... I think I've found something important.”
Dylan sighed and motioned for the two of them to have a seat.
“I didn't remember it earlier but after our Thorian here said his bit about her not wanting to sleep, I remembered some strange behaviour of hers from before.”
“We know she's been behaving strangely for a while,” Dylan said, interrupting.
“Bear with me, Captain. I am going somewhere with this.” She put her hand up and gathered her thoughts. “A while back I explained how a person could override the lock on any door if they ranked higher than whoever locked it. At the time she seemed understandably curious about it but not long after I'd explained she asked what rank she held. When I told her she was on probation, she got a little funny and practically ran off.”
“Is that it?”
“I did some searching on the database. It seems every night since being on the ship she's gone to a small cargo hold on the bottom deck and locked it with herself inside, at least right up until I told her that wouldn't work to keep out anyone higher ranked. Since then we don't think she's slept.”
“So she is scared of sleeping unless she's alone?”
Beth nodded.
“I went to the cargo hold. There's a blanket there and one of her spare uniforms. She's been sleeping in there.” The Thorian grimaced. “I think what she told me was true, but it makes no sense for her to have denied it in front of you.”
Dylan thought over this information for a few seconds, wondering how they could confirm her odd behaviour, before he remembered that there would be video evidence. Grabbing his pad he used his Captain's access to pull up footage of the cargo hold Beth had mentioned.
With it on the desk in the midst of them, they sped up the footage and watched the first three days on the ship. Each night she did as Beth suggested, bringing the blanket on the first night and everything else on the second. Then, as suddenly as the behaviour began it stopped and she never visited the hold again.