Tonight we continue with Part Four, Heroes and Scapegoats. Our attention now turns to the desperate captain and crew of the Nautilus. For thirty months they've been plodding along through space, searching for the next matter pod so they might reactivate their ADM drive and shoot back to planet Earth. This, they eventually accomplish. However it's not without controversy.
The prickly little Colony Commander Luigi Cadorna is back to his old tricks; this time advising the captain to ignore the presence of a second pod floating in space nearby. Were they only to have stopped to retrieve it while still on auxiliary power, they would have discovered it to contain a message from Santa Maria.
Tonight we continue with Part Four, Heroes and Scapegoats. Our attention now turns to the desperate captain and crew of the Nautilus. For thirty months they've been plodding along through space, searching for the next matter pod so they might reactivate their ADM drive and shoot back to planet Earth. This, they eventually accomplish. However it's not without controversy.
The prickly little Colony Commander Luigi Cadorna is back to his old tricks; this time advising the captain to ignore the presence of a second pod floating in space nearby. Were they only to have stopped to retrieve it while still on auxiliary power, they would have discovered it to contain a message from Santa Maria.
Hello, and welcome back to Twin Paradox. I'm King Everett Medlin and what you're hearing is a SciFi trilogy I wrote four years ago under the pseudonym Purple Hazel. Twin Paradox follows my first podcast series entitled Deathwalker Colony, which is now a full length novel available for purchase on Amazon. Go online and check it out! It's on sale today in E-book format, as well as the first two books in the Rijel 12 Series, The Rise of New Australia and Return of Anarchy.
Tonight we continue with Part Four, Heroes and Scapegoats. Our attention now turns to the desperate captain and crew of the Nautilus. For thirty months they've been plodding along through space, searching for the next matter pod so they might reactivate their ADM drive and shoot back to planet Earth. This, they eventually accomplish. However it's not without controversy. The prickly little Colony Commander Luigi Cadorna is back to his old tricks; this time advising the captain to ignore the presence of a second pod floating in space nearby. Were they only to have stopped to retrieve it while still on auxiliary power, they would have discovered it to contain a message from Santa Maria.
Twin Paradox is a SciFi series encompassing three full length novels; all of which will be read in their entirety during the coming weeks. You can go online and download the E-books ... or if you prefer, tune in and listen to me read them to you.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Twin Paradox, Part Four: Heroes and Scapegoats. Chapter Twenty-three, Dropping a Dime ....
“Grazie a Dio! Is it really true?” exclaimed Commander Cadorna as he stormed onto the bridge. In normal circumstances the ship’s captain would have braced himself for yet another vociferous complaint from the disagreeable Italian. Was it the same thing as last time? Reports of fraternization and insubordination among the former colonists and construction workers – along with a request for a security detail no doubt to go assist him in arresting the offenders? Not likely. Not this time. Cadorna must have heard the news. The next matter device had finally been located.
Two and a half years had passed on board the Nautilus and things were finally looking up. There seemed to be a light at the end of that long, dark tunnel they’d been trapped inside of for such an interminable length of time. Buried in a galactic grave of perpetual night they’d been. Wondering if they’d ever see home again. Languishing as though convicts on an old prison barge sailing out to Botany Bay, Australia from Ireland. Nevertheless, Captain Yermak Timofeyevich had somehow managed to keep things under control throughout the crisis.
The captain sighed with relief when he sensed this exchange would not be another heated one.
********
True to form, Luigi had been a royal pain in the ass the past four years, not the least of which for the captain himself. They butted heads on practically everything - with the captain clearly outranking Commander Cadorna, but the little Italian always with some form of advantage in any disagreement they had.
He’d been there longer for one thing. He’d been in charge of building the Kapteyn B planetary colony from the ground up. He’d led his people “to the shores of the great sea”, as he would repeatedly claim, and oversaw the establishment of their ocean-marine farming facility. What’s more he knew how everything worked. Knew who was reliable among his colonists and who was not. The captain, as far as he was concerned, was just their ride home, and truth be told it seemed at times that's precisely what he was implying whenever he spoke to his superior. To make matters worse, the hundred new colonists sent to relieve Cadorna of his burden, didn’t have much of a commander of their own when they arrived. The person sent with them was not the strong leader type but more of an administrator – and she had absolutely no interest in battling Commander Cadorna for control. Just wasn’t in her nature. Besides … she knew he’d be out of her hair once Nautilus departed; so she just agreed whenever he’d tirade, and for the most part avoided him however she could. When people complained to her – which was almost daily, she’d defer to the captain of the Nautilus and let him handle it. The poor captain by way of comparison would typically have no idea what to do and find himself ending every conversation placating the nasty fellow with comments like, “Okay, well…if that’s what you think is best,” or “I guess I see your side of it now.” This only served to frustrate both contractors and colonists alike – though they could hardly blame him really. No one wanted to cross paths with Luigi Cadorna.
“Just stay out of his way,” he’d say whenever they'd transmit their grievances up to the command team, “I’ll travel down with the next supply shipment and look into things.” Then he’d add sincerely, “I’ll meet with the commander and discuss these matters next time I see him.” Sometimes he did indeed follow up on those promises. Most of the time he didn’t.
The projects had been easy to construct. The one hundred new colonists were supported this time by a group of fifty construction engineers; and these men and women were military contractors, not soldiers or sailors. They had materials, tools, equipment, and plans. Merely needed to know where the commander wanted things built. Besides that, they really didn’t want to see or hear from the man until they were done. Unfortunately, he was all over the place in his surface rover - just like he used to do with B.J. - though by then he had a new driver and a newer, more determined attitude toward micromanaging subordinates.
In all fairness the original colonists had pretty much brought this upon themselves and their new colleagues. It was the marijuana use that set him off shortly after Santa Maria had left orbit; and in BJ's absence there was no stopping his relapse into paranoia. Somehow they’d figured hiding a few cannabis plants within the rows and rows of tomatoes, potatoes, and other produce growing inside the agricultural center would go unnoticed. Assumed they could splice the plants’ roots together just like Young-Min Jo had done in the Garden Center. It worked for a while. But Luigi caught on. When he did, there was hell to pay.
The construction contractors hated him from the word go; used to joke about how they’d love to arrange a convenient little “accident” so he would meet an untimely end. Cadorna never pushed them far enough to do such a thing; though at times they seriously considered it. They simply couldn’t talk to the impossible fellow about anything regarding their projects without it turning into an argument.
He never threatened anyone of course. Just yelled and flailed his arms and shook his head, furiously rattling off “No-no-no-no-no … you are not understanding me!” The contractors were tough guys and gals who had seen it all / done it all. They knew what they were doing and their knowledge of structural engineering was not based on textbook theory but real–life experience from decades of doing this on the Moon. If they said a foundation needed to be dug “here” and not “there” then they were correct, even if Luigi imagined it “over there…where the view is so nice.” But he never risked physical altercations with them. No. Had enough sense not to make that mistake.
There were basically two main projects that had to be constructed before Nautilus could leave. The first was to build permanent housing, providing room for all 100 new colonists to live comfortably. This was located in close proximity to the agricultural center and it was a windowless dormitory basically; which looked more like a correctional facility when they were done. But it provided relief from the cold, the heavy gravity, and best of all the constant sunlight. This feature was especially appealing. Daylight could now be regulated with skylights which could be shuttered when occupants wished to snooze peacefully in their quarters. The housing facility had its own latrines, which composted human feces into manure for fertilizer. This biosoil could be used in the “ag center” as they called it, to fertilize their crops. Finally, the colonists were provided additional materials to build tunnels between the dormitory and the ag center, and then between the housing center and the B-lander as well, so they’d rarely have to go outside.
The second project was a processing facility built to turn food harvested from the sea into dehydrated squares (or “sea cakes”) which could be packaged for shipment back to Earth. Building the facility only took six months using prefabricated materials ferried down to the surface from Nautilus on the new supply vessel. This craft, called B-Lander Two, had minimal living facilities and was otherwise like a big cargo van. Food processing equipment followed after the walls, foundation, and roof had been done. Soon it was a fully functional operation, cranking out sea cakes by the thousands. This meant that those remaining behind when Nautilus departed could feed themselves, using their own garden produce to supplement their diet and continuing to expand the marine netting and harvesting operation to bring in newer varieties of the Kapteyn Sea’s infinite bounty.
The Nautilus also brought along a pair of two-man ocean exploration vessels which would allow them to begin harvesting plant life from the sea floor. These could launch from the shore but more easily from a pier, and could explore to as deep as 1000 meters, remaining submerged for up to three days. With these contraptions they could dredge the seafloor and cultivate crops - as well as perform the task of harvesting. This had been Commander Cadorna’s planned legacy to the inheritors of the Kapteyn colony: to create a harvesting operation which would focus on marine plant-life and seek to access this nearly endless food source. Estimates were that the size of the Great Kapteyn Sea was approximately 300 million square kilometers – about twice the size of the Pacific Ocean. Luigi thus envisioned a future network of these processing plants producing nutritious food that could feed generations of humans back on Earth.
Yes, the food processing facility was Luigi Cadorna’s baby and though he had little input on the prefabricated housing project that they threw up from the floor of that dry seabed in a matter of months, the factory he paid close attention to. By the time new colonists were being ferried down to the surface and fresh work crews assembled for trips down to the seashore, Commander Cadorna had already moved his command operation out of B-lander One down to first a jiffy pop tent, then to a permanent barracks he had them construct for folks to live in during the project. It gave him an opportunity to “supervise” – even though he was not needed (nor desired). It also gave him a chance to nag, bitch, annoy, torment, and drive all of them crazy! When the construction team would travel back to Nautilus up in Kapteyn B’s orbit for more materials and equipment, they’d complain vehemently to the captain about his conduct. Captain Timofeyevich finally quit going down to the surface to visit with the commander altogether. The little curmudgeon drove him half-crazy as well.
That being said, over the two-plus years they’d been stranded in space, creeping along on auxiliary power, the two had gradually found a way to work together. For one thing, because he was such a petty tyrant; people feared him. Even the burly contractors stayed clear of him. He was so hotheaded and quick to confront people – even those towering over him in size – it just made more sense avoiding his wrath. Because of this, disciplinary problems on the ship were practically nonexistent.
This seemed to provide some measure of comfort to the embattled captain of the Nautilus.
********
“Da!” smiled Captain Timofeyevich, “our sensors have picked up the presence of a matter device - possibly two of them - floating several hundred thousand kilometers away. We may soon engage the warp drive and renew our journey home, my friend.”
Commander Cadorna had heard this might have happened only a half hour earlier and had rushed across the massive ship to the command bridge. He’d been patrolling the halls and corridors making his presence felt for the past few hours, looking out for colonists who might be hooking up with members of the construction team. This had been an ongoing problem; and was a violation of military etiquette. It was a rule that Luigi Cadorna was determined to enforce.
“Two?” clarified Luigi, “you are telling me captain that there are possibly two of them?” Captain Timofeyevich nodded warily, not sure of how Cadorna would react. But there was no point concealing it from him – he’d find out one way or the other. Indeed, two devices had been detected. Or at least that’s what ship sensors were picking up. At this great of a distance it was hard to nail down.
“Da, Po vsey vidimosti … we’re pretty sure,” he replied. “But it’s too far away to tell really. No matter. We can engage the warp drive within a few days – maybe two. Either way, we’ll be able to inform the crew of the good news. Would you care to do the honors?”
Commander Cadorna was pleased at the opportunity, certainly he was, but he just couldn’t get past the fact they’d detected more than one matter device. His mind quickly diverted to memories of the two captains onboard the Santa Maria and their lax attitude toward crew discipline. Naturally he assumed the worst. Could it be they’d inadvertently struck the previous matter device? Perhaps knocked it out of place? Possibly. They could have easily done so and either ignored the impact or even worse, never noticed. He imagined those fools banging into it without paying attention. This was of course quite impossible to do without destroying the device upon contact, but that’s just how Cadorna thought. Never trusted anyone. Always believed the world was full of incompetent derelicts.
“Idioti!” he exclaimed, “They knocked it out of place, eh?” He walked over to the captain then lowered his voice so as not to alert the rest of the crew on the command bridge of his suspicions. Not that it mattered. They could easily see he was stirring the pot. Trouble was, after this long ordeal in deep space, they were ready to blame practically anybody for their predicament. Now it seemed Commander Cadorna had a working theory for a possible scapegoat. “It’s like my mother always said when I was a little boy, ‘tanto va la gatta al lardo che ci lascia lo zampino’… it means that misdeeds repeated will eventually leave evidence behind. You understand this, don’t you captain?” The Russian gave off a shrugging, nervous grin as if to indicate he wasn’t following Luigi’s line of thinking (even if he could already imagine where the little Italian was heading). “When we get closer,” continued the suspicious fellow, “let us see if there are in fact two pods floating nearby each other. This might indicate our colleagues from the Santa Maria are to blame for our plight.”
Naturally Captain Timofeyevich wasn’t considering such a possibility at that precise moment. He was merely glowing with excitement about being able to engage their ADM drive system and finally deliver his crew and passengers back to Earth! But … when Luigi put it like that … he had to admit the accusation did have merit.
This became the prevailing belief among the crew and passengers from that point forward. True, within a few days they did activate their Alcubierre Drive then arrived back on Earth in a matter of months. No, they didn’t bother with securing or intercepting the second pod within their cargo bay and examining it. Had they done so this would have revealed a message detailing for them not only what had occurred but also the coordinates for a future rendezvous point with Santa Maria. However, the captain and his command staff chose to ignore it, believing it to be in fact a non-baryonic matter pod – or the remains of one - the second of two they’d discovered in the same general area. It never occurred to them what else it could be, especially not when Luigi Cadorna had warned the captain of his counterpart Steinhart Stehter’s “incompetence”. For within Luigi’s twisted, paranoid mind, the most plausible explanation was that Santa Maria had mistakenly moved matter pods into the wrong place, either by accident or due to sheer inattentiveness.
Perhaps it had affixed itself to the ship as it passed by too closely. Perhaps they’d merely bumped it and it drifted this far on its own. Either way, he felt the blame could be laid squarely on their shoulders. It worked better for the crew to believe it that way, and insured other advantages for him as well. After all, when they got back to Earth, they’d be ahead of the Santa Maria, and that would essentially guarantee Commander Cadorna that his story got told first.
Oh yes, there’d be questions when they got back. Difficult questions. He assumed there would. Captain Timofeyevich would be faced with those as well! How did they come to be delayed? Who or what caused this? Why didn’t they communicate their situation with Mission Control? Or simply put, why were they over two years behind schedule? Timofeyevich worried about this and – in the absence of anyone else he could seek counsel from – looked to his colony commander for guidance. Commander Cadorna was only too happy to offer up advice.
“The solution is simple my friend,” Luigi would tell him. “We simply tell Space Programme that we arrived at what we thought was our link-up, only to find the Santa Maria nowhere in sight. Our system converted to auxiliary propulsion and we limped along until we found the next matter device. That’s all we know for sure. Dio li Benedica, the Santa Maria and her crew were nowhere to be found … so we set a course for Earth. Simple enough, no?”
“But what of the second matter device … the one we found floating next to it – I mean near it? What shall we tell them of this?” the nervous Russian would often ask. “How do we address that?”
But Luigi would merely become dismissive and slightly agitated whenever this was brought up. “We do not tell them of this, ovviamente.” In Cadorna’s mind there was no need to muddy the water. Less complicated, the better. “They will only care to hear why we were delayed and we will tell them … we came out of warp only to find ourselves floating in space and no trace of the Santa Maria anywhere.”
Of course Captain Timofeyevich knew he’d still have a bit of a problem with this. His captain’s log already noted that they’d seen a second matter device (or what looked like one). How would he explain that, if this important fact came to light? Not surprisingly, Commander Cadorna had an answer for that as well.
“I wouldn’t concern yourself, Captain. The people whom we’ll meet with back at Space Programme will have known my family. Some might even be nieces or nephews of my dear wife. No one will question my … I mean our report.”
********
Despite his assurances, that very same official inquiry did occur, and within months of their arrival back on Earth. Yes, all of Earth was abuzz with excitement over Nautilus’s return. It had been anticipated for several years, ever since Santa Maria’s message had arrived about a year after the matter device had gone missing. For a solid month everyone was thrilled as the media hailed the returning heroes: “Commander Luigi Cadorna, the founder of the Kapteyn B planetary colony, and the discoverer of the Great Kapteyn Sea … along with the original colonists, the construction team, the determined captain, and the brave crew who’d endured such immense hardship." What’s more, reports flowed in from the Earth’s moon that the ship’s hold contained thousands of packages of exotic ocean-marine sea food or “Kapteyn Cakes” as journalists soon nicknamed them. Missions back and forth to Kapteyn B were now going to be possible, and an aggressive new expansion of the colony was championed by the G.U.
But there was one sticky little issue that Captain Timofeyevich still had to deal with. One very important matter that he had to address. Because of all the fanfare, few wanted to rush the poor man in front of a military tribunal to field questions, but it wasn’t long before public jubilation and heavy press coverage had tapered off, and the Russian captain found himself hauled before a naval board of inquiry. It seemed there was a problem with their story.
Unfortunately, for both Yermak Timofeyevich and the rest of the command team, there was a message pod sitting in a lab back at Mission Control which seemed to point up a rather glaring mistake committed by the captain. A similar device had purportedly been waiting for them ten and a half months earlier, and if they’d only stopped to retrieve it, they would have known that Santa Maria was approaching a revised rendezvous point where they could have intercepted them.
Why was the message pod either missed or ignored? That’s what the board wanted to know. In a panic Captain Timofeyevich contacted his old colleague Commander Luigi Cadorna, who was by now a media darling, appearing on talk shows and Ultravision broadcast interviews detailing all the wonders and amazing discoveries “he” had made while exploiting this strange new planet many, many light years away. Oh yes, he’d plunged into the life of a media celebrity with both feet - seemed perfectly suited for it. So much in demand he was, that Timofeyevich had a hard time reaching him. Had to track him down through his publicist.
It was a good idea that he did when he did! For no matter what kind of tale he tried “spinning” for the members of the board of inquiry, one way or another the name Luigi Cadorna was bound to come up during the proceedings. He was in the ship’s log almost daily. Reports of his conduct, reports of his confrontational attitude, reports of arguments and contentious relationships with the construction staff as well as the crew and colonists; it was all there. Cadorna would have to answer to this if they chose to haul him in as well.
That’s why Luigi was wise in agreeing to come to his former captain’s aid and face that board of inquiry right along with him. Their stories needed to match, and on top of that Commander Cadorna needed to make sure he called in every possible favor in order to see to it members of the board asked easy questions! In his deluded mind, he honestly believed that after over two decades people at Space Programme would still care who his friends were (or used to be in this case: most were already dead or retired).
As things would turn out, it went south on them right from the start. The board wanted to know specifically why they didn’t stop and bring on board the message pod left behind by Santa Maria, which they could have done since they were still on auxiliary power. Did they not detect its presence? Of course they did. There’d be no use in denying that fact. It was right there in the ship’s log! Captain’s logs were electronic documents and impossible to erase (or correct or alter or fabricate). But what the captain thought it was – or later determined it to be - was an entirely different matter. That’s where Luigi Cadorna figured they could win.
If the captain believed it to have been the original missing non-baryonic matter device, which could have been mistakenly deflected by the Santa Maria, he would have had every reason to simply set a course for Earth and engage his warp drive mechanism to speed up their return. He had 'unruly' passengers and a cargo hold full of food – enough to feed a large European city for a month. On top of that the welfare of his crew members easily outweighed the necessity to find the Santa Maria and risk any further delays.
Luckily that pretty much satisfied the board. After hours of testimony from Captain Yermak and a few of his former command staff, the defense team could see victory looming on the horizon. It was only when the board allowed the prosecution to cross-examine Commander Cadorna (when he took the stand in his captain’s defense) that the case blew wide open.
It happened mainly by accident. Luigi was initially doing a bang-up job answering the cross examiner’s questions about what he thought he remembered seeing on the command bridge that day. Did the captain detect a second object floating in space near the next matter device? “Yes,” he said. Did he slow down to identify it? “No,” he said. Did he say why? “Yes,” he answered … but then corrected himself; and that was when it all fell apart like a house of playing cards on a flimsy bridge table.
“I mean no, actually,” said Luigi, sitting up straight and puffing his chest out proudly. He seemed as though he had more to say. The prosecuting attorney, who was at the time sitting at a long table across the room from him with arms crossed, cocked his head to one side and raised his eyebrows. Attorneys from his team seated next to him weren’t quite as calm and sedate. They all looked up from their electronic notepads and stared at the witness with mouths agape. This might be the turning point they’d been hoping for! Was it simply an error? Did Luigi really mean to answer that way then change his answer in almost the same breath? Or was it something different? Was Commander Cadorna attempting something clever just to gain more notoriety for himself? The press was there; maybe that was his goal.
Certainly he could have said yes, and within the hour the whole thing would be over. Everyone could go home and Luigi as well as Captain Timofeyevich would be off the hook. Just confirm the original story they’d concocted months before – that it was the captain’s decision to ignore the second object floating near the matter device and proceed on to Earth. That’s all he really had to do. Why didn’t he? It would have been so easy! Yet the conniving fellow just couldn’t bring himself to do it. The resentment from all those months battling with colonists and crewmembers – the conflicts with the construction contractors as well. And what of the marijuana problem? There was that too. This was his chance to finally set the record straight.
That wasn’t all of course. Above everything was that little fear gnawing at him in the back of his brain about what would happen when Santa Maria finally showed up in Earth’s orbit with their version of the story. What would happen then? Why, they’d tell everything! All the problems he’d had back on Kapteyn B. “They’ll be lined up outside the door just waiting for their turn to come after me,” he thought. “What I said, when I said it, what I called them … oh, they’ll have a field day.”
Now to be sure, the board likely had all the goods on him already and could have hauled him in for questioning right after they were done with Captain Yermak. Such a report would have been recorded by Tommy Berwick and sent back years before when Santa Maria was preparing to leave Kapteyn B. He knew full well this would have been done; and if they brought that up at some point, it’d be his little white butt in that lonely defendant’s chair across the courtroom, not Timofeyevich’s. He could see it happening. Perhaps that’s why it suddenly occurred to him to act decisively. He might not get another chance … and though his captain would likely survive this inquiry with his career intact, the same couldn’t necessarily be said for himself. If he acted now, he might succeed in shedding light on the lack of competence and professionalism among his rival captains from Santa Maria.
“It was I who provided the captain with my own personal assessment of the situation,” he stated fearlessly. “I informed him that the crew of Santa Maria as well as their captain were regularly abusing cannabis and very likely could have collided with the original missing matter device in error. That, in my opinion, was what might explain the presence of what we believed to be two nonbaryonic matter pods in close proximity to one another.”
When he spoke those words the tension in the room rose to a fever pitch. This changed everything! Looks of shock and concern began being exchanged among officers and members of the media in attendance. It was like someone had just stood up in church and farted. His testimony created an uproar. Excited murmuring drowned out the proceedings for several seconds while the prosecution attempted to clarify Commander Cadorna’s comments. The judge eventually had to hush the audience by rapping his gavel on a wooden platform sitting in front of him. “ORDER … THIS COURTROOM SHALL MAINTAIN ORDER!” he shouted and people slowly quieted down.
“Cannabis, Commander?” repeated the prosecuting attorney, “you mean marijuana … Tetrahydrocannabinol, sir? Is that what you’re saying?” He was an aging British officer from Space Programme who’d been assigned to the case. Savvy and unflappable; the other lawyers on the team had yielded to him the task of cross-examination because he had the most experience with tearing down witnesses. He spoke loudly and slowly; deliberately enunciating every word. Made sure the board heard him clearly as he sought clarification. These were serious charges.
“With all due respect Commander … I believe you’re implying that the captain of the Santa Maria was known to be using a controlled substance … while in command of a galactic space vessel. You do realize the seriousness of such charges, don’t you?” He paused for a moment as he slowly got up and walked toward Cadorna. The room was now eerily silent as though waiting for the little fellow to temper his words. He didn’t.
“Yes … yes, I do Lieutenant,” replied Luigi. “And I do realize the seriousness of this. It was I who protested the use and consumption of marijuana and sadly I must say, found myself in the minority – even among my fellow commanders.”
The much older prosecutor detected a tad bit of presumptuousness in the Italian fellow’s words. Couldn’t help but notice he’d just said “fellow commanders” as though Cadorna felt he was equal in rank to them. Not so. They were his superior officers and it was an act of gross insubordination for a junior officer to make such an accusation without solid evidence. But that’s where Luigi had him licked. Those same fifty colonists who’d returned to Earth with him … they could be hauled in one by one to confirm his testimony if push came to shove. What’s more, the use of marijuana onboard Santa Maria was not just random but systemic! All he had to do was point out what he knew of cannabis consumption on the Santa Maria, and the whole thing would go off like an atomic bomb. The ensuing fallout would ruin careers.
Yet the old prosecutor had been down this type of rabbit hole before. He knew better than to continue his current line of questioning. There was no use in pushing things further and creating even more controversy. Captain Timofeyevich would likely be exonerated either way. No, the prosecution couldn’t win no matter what they tried now. Timofeyevich had obviously assumed that the second object they’d detected was a remnant of the missing matter pod due to the assumed incompetence of his fellow ship captain. He’d taken the advice of a junior officer, which was acceptable, and believed the man had competently assessed the situation based on direct experience with the other ship’s captains. Seeing the deck was stacked against him, he turned to the admiral in charge of the proceedings and requested a private audience. Under the circumstances there was no other alternative.
“Permission to approach the bench, Your Honor?” he asked. The admiral nodded with a look of extreme annoyance on his face.
“Please do, Lieutenant,” he grumbled.
What followed was a veritable sea of indiscernible comments uttered in raised whispers which rumbled throughout and sounded much like a crowded feedlot just outside a large slaughterhouse. Meanwhile Commander Cadorna sat calmly with his cap secured under his arm and the other hand resting on his lap. After a few moments conferring with the prosecutor, the admiral turned his attention to the courtroom.
“Eh … The court will take a half-hour recess to discuss this matter further. We’ll return to this meeting hall in thirty minutes.” Then he smacked his gavel, missing the little wooden platform intended for it, and hitting the surface next to a glass of water which nearly toppled from the impact.
This was big. Someone was going to swing for this, and the admiral could only assume the one who would eventually be brought up on charges of dereliction of duty was not even in the room at the time. He wisely instructed the defense counsel as well as the prosecutor to join him in his private chambers.
“You … and you too, Lieutenant … follow me please, will you gentlemen?” said the admiral. He was just as perturbed as he was fuming mad. The prosecutor as well as the defense attorney promptly did as he directed. The rest of the court erupted once again in excited whispers as they exited the courtroom.
********
“Alright,” he began as they joined him in his office down the hallway, “let’s cut to the chase. What in bloody hell is going on here?” The admiral was an old Scottish fellow who’d risen to this lofty rank after a heroic mission years before to evacuate refugees from the burning city of Mogadishu. During the mission he’d successfully fought off Somalian pirates and wiped out their base with a missile strike. Years later he was now a respected, no-nonsense leader within Space Programme.
That’s why he was so taken aback by what he’d just heard in his courtroom. Marijuana being consumed onboard an active vessel – with the implied acquiescence of the captain himself? He couldn’t begin to conceive of such a thing! Now unfortunately there was little if anything he could do about it. There was no use beating around the bush; not for a respected admiral whose reputation was on the line. He opened up with both barrels blazing.
“The witness knows something vitally important - but if he says one more bloody word out there in that bloody courtroom – about dope - this whole case is going to blow up in our faces. You both know that don’t you?” The two attorneys nodded somberly. “Now … one of you two dobbers knows what he knows, so start your tongues a’ waggin’ and tell me what the fuck is goin’ on.”
The defense attorney nodded in the general direction of his opponent and spoke up first. He had to admit he knew practically everything Commander Cadorna was referring to. The hydroponic garden center. Growing fruits and vegetables. Grafting roots together with Cannabis Indica to create hybrid plants containing THC. He knew all about this from interviewing Luigi Cadorna only days before. Furthermore, he knew that the crew who’d been in stasis during the journey to Kapteyn B had been given food laced with cannabis to aid them in their recovery so they could avoid taking narcotic pain killers. They used marijuana edibles to kick-start their appetites and get them eating regularly. It sped up the recovery process, he was told; and indeed it had worked wonders. However, the captain of the Santa Maria, Tommy Berwick, and possibly others within his staff, were known to be regular users – long before the ship even made orbit at Kapteyn B.
What’s more, claimed Luigi, his own colonists continued to try and consume the contraband substance after the Santa Maria had departed. He’d personally seen to it that this had been stamped out – literally by his own hand as he’d gone through the agricultural center ripping out entire harvests of suspected hybrid plants. Those identified as being complicit in the affair had suffered company punishment by having their rations cut for a week, with the main perpetrators suffering one month half-rations. Draconian measures yes, but well-within military regulations. The defense attorney went on to say he’d instructed his star witness not to mention it unless it was necessary in order to establish a motive for his conduct. He told the judge he’d made this very clear to the commander beforehand.
“Yes, Admiral. It’s all true. Commander Cadorna knew these things but I explicitly told him not to bring it up on the witness stand unless … well, unless he had no choice.”
The Admiral sighed. “Ah. Did you now, Lieutenant? Bloody hell, man. And just how in the world was your witness supposed to determine that? Now the whole thing is a shambles.”
The admiral fully understood the implications. There was no further need to continue. The damage had been done already. His next act had to be in saving Space Programme from further scandal. Captain Timofeyevich would have to be exonerated of any charges of negligence; allowed to retire with full military honors. He dismissed the two attorneys from his office and returned to the courtroom to continue the proceedings.
After that the witness was immediately excused. And within an hour the board returned a verdict. Not guilty. Under the circumstances, it was the only viable solution. Captain Timofeyevich was absolved of all guilt. He exited the courtroom and quietly slipped out the back of the building rarely to be seen in public again. His career was over, but he would still receive an honorable discharge only a few months later; something journalists following the story would never hear about.
And what of Luigi Cadorna? The man who’d dropped a dime on his superior officers onboard Santa Maria? His brash accusations of marijuana use among the crew would be a bombshell in the world press for days to come - until of course G.U. officials got in touch with media executives to put a lid on it. Following that, the story dissipated like an early morning fog. He suffered no consequences for his audacious testimony. Instead Commander Cadorna was given a promotion – to captain no less – partly as a means of keeping him quiet and partly as a reward for his “heroism and brave leadership”. This, by way of comparison, was widely reported in the news.
“Oh the irony,” many would say later. Certainly those fifty colonists who’d suffered under his command got a good belly laugh out of that one. And all those military contractors? Those construction engineers and the like who’d clashed with him repeatedly both onboard Nautilus and on Kapteyn B? They could only knock back a pint of beer at the local pub and spend the rest of their lives laughing about the sheer stupidity of the farce they’d witnessed. Sure, they’d have loved to weigh in during the media shitstorm which followed. Could have ripped Cadorna apart. Could have raised any number of questions about his motives in exposing what to them at least was an immaterial observation that the crew of Santa Maria might have been high on marijuana from time to time. So what? Truth be told, they wouldn’t have blamed them one bit!
“There was no booze to be had,” one told a reporter on a local TV station back in the North American district of Nebraska. “Couldn’t get a beer. No whiskey around. Shit, by the time we arrived we’d been in space for over a year and they didn’t have a goddam bar we could go to. Didn’t even brew their own vodka - which I found rather odd. They had potatoes. Offered to show ‘em how to build a “still” but that ‘ole commander fella’ … he shut ‘er right down.”
Of course that same construction worker wisely stopped short of personally lambasting Luigi Cadorna in the interview. The military had taken mighty good care of all those contractors and seen to it they kept their mouths shut regarding anything pertaining to the case. No matter, concluded both they as well as the fifty returning colonists who also got offered a government pension with full medical benefits. Same with the returning crew! Everyone got a big fat reward in exchange for their silence. They were set for life. Why rock the boat?
Besides, with all the fame garnered by “Captain” Cadorna, who would listen to them? Luigi had become a media sensation and continued to be a highly sought-after “expert” on space exploration as well as ways to exploit the alien planet’s resources. Many simply figured, why bother telling the world what they’d seen – and what they really knew about their former nagging, badgering, overbearing boss?
It would seem, at least for the time being, that the world was believing Luigi Cadorna’s version of events. And as the next few years passed, with the people of Earth gradually losing interest in matters pertaining to the still missing ship, folks returned to their daily lives and diversions. Shows and sports broadcasts on Ultravision were far more interesting anyway. They didn’t have to worry anymore about the sad tale of that poor lost spaceship hurtling toward them at just below light speed from across the galaxy.
Few still remembered – children in primary school actually had to be taught about the so-called “lost ship”, the Santa Maria, since no one spoke of it anymore. Citizens of Earth put it out of their minds and just assumed it would all work out someday … if they even cared, that is. Why bother with it really? The stigma surrounding the Santa Maria - and its fifty crewmembers, captain, and 100 cryogenically frozen crewmates believed to still be in stasis onboard - was that they had brought this tragedy upon themselves with their decision to grow and consume marijuana, when they were supposed to be doing their jobs.
When they returned – if they ever returned – there’d be some mighty good explaining to do for at least a few of them – not the least of which their now-infamous captain, Steinhart Stehter ….
This concludes tonight's podcast of Chapter Twenty-three: Dropping a Dime. Not only that; it's also the end of book one of the Twin Paradox trilogy! Watch for Twin Paradox Season Two, all nineteen episodes; which I'll begin recording very soon. Next week I'll post a recap of book one, including a preview of the exciting sequel, Twin Paradox Book Two.
Also, and don't forget, my latest full-length novel ... Deathwalker Colony ... is available right now in E-book format and can be downloaded today on Amazon.com ... along with the first two books in the Rijel 12 Series, The Rise of New Australia and Return of Anarchy. A link to these can be found in the transcript for this episode.
Go online and check 'em out!
I'm King Everett Medlin. Thanks for tuning in.
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