Finding the Truth

Finding the Truth


A Short Story

Written By

SpaceFaction

     Taffane leans back against the desk of the Leader of Cargo, Honciran, by her palms. They are looking at a large Image Monitor in front of them, which shows an explosion of a substantial oblong container after it hits the floor from the top of a four-story container unit.

     Before and after this explosion, individuals working in Cargo Bay started panicking and running around, trying to avoid it. Eight of these workers were hurt by this explosion. "How are these workers?" Taffane asks.

     "Is that all you have to say?" Honciran asks.

     "It sounds like you are blaming me for what happened here. Are you blaming me?" Taffane asks.

     Honciran looks at Taffane. "You are the Cargo Controller for the Cargo Bays, aren't you?"

     "Yes, I am. I have been a Cargo Controller for almost twenty years. I live next to my office, nearly forty/ten. But I sometimes take a little time off for myself. I wasn't even there when this happened."

     "That's why I have no choice but to dismiss you. You are no longer a Cargo Controller on this spaceship."

     Taffane smiles. "Why are you smiling?" Honciran asks. "I just dismissed you as a Cargo Controller."

##

     An individual enters the former office of Taffane with a box of personal items in his hands. Taffane is finishing placing her items in a box. "It didn't take Honciran too long to replace me as a Cargo Controller."

     "I'm happy I got this position," says this individual. "But I'm also sorry you don't have it anymore."

     Taffane smiles. "I'm not sorry. I have been thinking about leaving this position for quite a while. Honciran just beat me in telling him I'm leaving him."

     "If it's not too personal, what will you do now?" This individual asks.

     "It's not personal. I have been thinking about what I will be doing now. I could go to Replacement to get another position. But under the circumstances of my dismissal, I don't think that's the way to go. Until I can find out what is happening in Cargo Bay, I won't be replacing anyone."

     Taffane puts the last of her things into her box. Before she leaves her former office, she looks at her Replacement. It's not because of her leaving. "Do you know how many problems we have had in the Cargo Bay in the last few years?"

##

     "You can't be here. You're not a Cargo Controller anymore," says a Life and Death Professional after Taffane enters Life and Death.

     "My dismissal got around quickly," says Taffene as she walks toward the nearest of her eight workers involved in the latest 'accident.' "I'm just here to see how my workers are doing. There have been a lot of 'problems' over the last few months, but none have been like the latest one."

     Another Life and Death Professional walks toward Taffane, and the other Life and Death Professional is here. "Taffane, I know why you're here, but you must leave now."

     "I don't want to cause you any problems. I'm leaving, but I want to know how my former workers are doing before I do. Especially the three who have been seriously hurt."

     "Officially, I'm not supposed to tell you anything, but since you were still a Cargo Controller, then I think you have a right to know about them," says the other Life and Death Professionals. "All eight will be okay in time, including the three still in a Life and Death situation. I'm sure they will also be okay."

##

     Taffane picks up a metal piece of something in the Cargo Bay where the 'accident' has occurred. She looks at it when the Leader of Protection, Stephonim, approaches her. "What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here."

     "I have been hearing that a lot lately." Taffane keeps looking at the piece of something she has found. "I'm here to find out what has been happening here."

     "That's not responsibility anymore," says Stephonim. "It's mine."

     Taffane looks at Stephonim. "It's mine too. As long as I'm being blamed for this 'accident,' I won't be going anywhere until I find out what has happened here. I don't think this was an 'accident.'" Taffane makes a hand gesture whenever she says the word accident.

     "I don't think this was an accident either." Stephonim takes the piece Taffane hasn't stopped looking at from her. He starts looking at it, too. "What's this?"

     "It's a piece of whatever exploded here," answers Taffane. "I was the Cargo Controller for almost twenty years, and we have never had an explosive. Why did we have one now? That's what I want to know."

##

     Someone points the barrel of a weapon at Taffany from around the corner of a side corridor. This weapon is pulled back as several individuals walk past this corridor. Two of them look in the direction of this someone. They don't react to seeing a weapon. It must be hidden somehow.

     After these individuals walk past this someone, the weapon reappears and points around this side corridor again. Several individuals are walking down the main corridor, including Taffane, but they are in the opposite direction. They don't appear to notice this weapon either.

     This weapon has a Closeness Cylinder on it that is looking at Taffane. It's pointing at the back of her head. Suddenly, Taffane stops walking and turns around. Now, this cylinder is pointing at her forehead. A small red glowing ball comes out of the barrel of this weapon, and it's heading for the forehead of Taffane.

     Taffane turns her head to her side just as the red glowing ball is about to kill her; a red glowing ball explodes when it hits the corridor wall behind her. "It doesn't look like someone doesn't want me to know the truth about what is happening here."

####

     "That red glowing ball was meant to kill me," says a shaking Taffane while pointing at a small hole this red glowing ball created. "What are you going to do about it?"

     "I'm more concerned about this hole that this red glowing ball has created than you right now," says Stephonim. Stephonim places a black square box in his hand against this hole. He removed this box, and the hole is no longer there.

     Stephonim looks at the monitor on top of this box. It shows an image of the hole just sealed. Only a probe travels through it, stopping at the end. A thin stick emerges from this probe and enters the end of this hole. Stephonim looks at a new image on his box.

     "It looks like we got lucky," says Stephonim. "This red glowing ball didn't cause a problem with space and our spaceship. We are in no danger from it."

     "I thought we weren't supposed to have any weapons on our spaceship because that makes us a threat in space," says Taffane. "First, it's the unknown explosion in the Cargo Bay, and now it's a red glowing ball coming out of a hand weapon."

##

     The two Life and Death Professionals from a few days ago are checking out Taffane. Taffane smiles. "I thought I wasn't allowed in Life and Death anymore."

     "You are here because you need our help, not because you are no longer a Cargo Controller," says the older of the two Life and Death Professionals. The two Life and Death Professionals finish checking out Taffane.

     "I don't need your help. What am I really doing here?" Taffane asks.

     The two Life and Death Professionals look at each other. "You are here because you were recently in a Life and Death situation," says the younger of the two Life and Death Professionals.

     "That red glowing ball never came close to me," says Taffane. "That's not why I'm here. I want to know why I'm really here?" 134

     "We already told you why you are here," says the older of the two Life and Death Professionals. "It's because of your recent Life and Death situation." The two Life and Death Professionals leave. As they leave, they look at the individual in the Life and Death Sleeper next to Taffane: One of her Workers from the Cargo Bay.

##

     Taffane enters Stephonim's office quickly before the entrance slides about halfway open. "I want to talk to you about something."

     "I think I know what has happened in the Cargo Bay and our spaceship." When she arrives, Taffane stops walking toward the desk that Stephonim is sitting behind. "I want to know how long we have been collecting weapons on our spaceship and why most of us don't know about it."

     "What are you talking about? The only weapons we have on this spaceship are the ones we Protectors have."

     Taffane leans over the desk with her palms on it until she is almost face to face with Stephonim. "Then explain why I was near death because of a hand weapon. If you are the only ones who have weapons, it was you or one of you who tried to kill me."

     "It wasn't me or one of my Protectors. I already checked all of them out."

     "If it's not you or one of our Protectors, who was it?" Taffane asks.

     Taffane leans away from Stephonim. "It sounds like you have a big problem. Someone has been bringing in weapons, and it hasn't only been hand weapons."

##

     "What are you doing here?" Honciran asks Taffane, who sits behind a Data Monitor.

     Honciran walks over to see what Taffane is looking at. Taffane taps a button on the Controls under the Data Monitor to turn off her Data Monitor. "You don't need to see what I'm looking at."

     "You're not in control here anymore. You shouldn't be here. How did you get in here? I'm contacting Protection."

     "Go ahead and contact Protection. I don't care. As the recently dismissed former Cargo Controller, I can be here."

     Taffane turns the Data Monitor away from Honciran. "What are you doing? Why don't you want me to see what you're doing?" Honciran asks.

     "I'm not looking for any data information from your current Cargo Controller. That's his personal information as your current Cargo Controller. But I can look at my personal information."

     "Some weapons have gotten onto our spaceship, some that are deadly. We just had one of them here in the Cargo Bay not too long ago. The Cargo Bay is the most likely way these weapons have come here. I'm trying to find out how this has happened and for how long."

##

     Taffane is running among the rows of Cargo Containers. Occasionally, she uses these Containers to block her running. She's trying to avoid being killed by Stephonim and Honciran. After not hearing them nearby or any weapon firing, she stops and hides among these falling containers.

     "We don't want to kill you," Stephonim shouts. "But we have no choice. You know too much."

     "We're alone in space," shouts Honciran from another direction. "We need these weapons to survive."

     Taffane starts running again. "Why have you been keeping it to yourselves? Over a million individuals are on this spaceship; about eight hundred thousand are Young Ones. They should know about these weapons."

     "We have already encountered threats to our existence in space," shouts Stephonim from a different direction near Taffane. "We won't exist without these weapons."

     Stephonim and Honciran are getting closer to Taffane. Taffane stops running and smiles. "Maybe I can't stop you from killing me as you tried to do with the explosion in the Cargo Bay, but your weapons secret isn't one anymore. Those echoes from our shouting aren't only in this Cargo Bay. Everyone on this spaceship knows you are trying to keep this secret a secret by killing me."

The Word Count is = 1,955