Mothership Wilderness Pt. 29

"Why not let the Errand finish fueling and go?" Ezra didn't like the way she was slouching in her chair. Or that she wouldn't make eye contact with him. There was something sinister about this case, and she wasn't telling him all of it.

"I can't," she whispered. "I can't let them get away." She got up and kissed her husband on the cheek. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." She stood straight and smoothed out her uniform. "I always come home at the end of the day, don't I?" Tabitha tried to smile.

"That's recursive logic, dear." Ezra shook his head. "I don't understand what's going on in that head of yours."

"Okay, I gotta go." Tabitha waved goodbye. He was right, of course, like he always was. "Love you."

"Love you." Ezra called after her as she raced out the door.

~~

"You have questions?" Dr. Cole smiled, her pretty Asian features lighting up the spartan room. She gazed across the small metal table at Tabitha.

"Well, for starters, why are you no longer in the brig?" Tabitha pushed away the glass of milk that Mary had left for her.

"It wasn't as secure as we had hoped." Dr. Cole shrugged.

"Who is in control here? Is it Mary?" Tabitha didn't want to get cute with Dr. Cole. She didn't expect answers, but the sooner she got to business, the sooner she could excuse herself and search the ship methodically.

"God is in control."

Tabitha sighed. "I take it God is administering the drugs then?"

"What drugs?" Dr. Cole sipped her milk.

"Do you have an antidote for the drugs?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." This was true. Dr. Cole felt like she'd stepped into the wrong interview. "Shouldn't you be asking me about Marsden?"

"What is your relationship with Jacob Winthrop?" Tabitha was ticking things off one by one. She didn't plan on following up on the non-answers. She just wanted to put on a good show.

"He's my husband and the love of my life." Dr. Cole's smile brightened even more.

"And what about ..." Tabitha stared at the woman. "Wait. What? You're married to two people? Is that right? A teenage Fourth Wave zealot and a dead man?"

"I'm only married to one of them." She waved her left hand at Tabitha.

The inspector recognized the ring as one similar to those worn by other women on the ship. She thought about what Jacob had said about wives. "How ... many women are married to Jacob Winthrop?"

"There are ten. But the eleventh is coming in for a landing." Dr. Cole giggled.

"You share the love of your life with nine other women?"

"God's love knows no bounds, Inspector." Dr. Cole sipped her milk.

"Wait a second ... are there women I haven't yet met aboard the Errand?" Tabitha's mind spun.

"I don't know whom you've met." Dr. Cole ran her finger back and forth along the rounded edge of the table. "I've been in the brig, remember?"

There was no use beating around the bush. Tabitha spat out what Dr. Cole's math made plain, "Do Jacob's wives include his mother and sister?"

"You are a sharp one. I didn't think we would be talking about that today. This reminds me --"

"Is he married to his mother?" Tabitha leaned forward, spilling her glass of milk on the table. The milk pooled to her left.

"Yes. They are married." Dr. Cole nodded.

"Do they ... do they ... do they ... fornicate?" Tabitha's heart raced.

"They are married." Dr. Cole scooted her chair to the side so that Tabitha's spilled milk wouldn't drip on her. "You have the most ridiculous expression on your face right now, Mrs. Kensington. Wait ... are you jealous?"

"What ... what ... happened to Jacob's father? Is he out floating in space somewhere, too?"

"Calm down. You look like you're about to have a stroke." Dr. Cole held out a hand in pacification. "Isaac is an attendant to our mission. He is quite safe. I saw him this morning mopping up after Jacob and I." She winked.

"What is an attendant? I've heard that men might 'attend' God. What does that mean?" Tabitha received no response from Dr. Cole. As they sat there in silence, Tabitha's mind raced. Everyone on this ship had gone mad. "You killed your husband, didn't you?" Tabitha could see these women had gone crazy over Jacob. Whatever the drug used, it had driven Gail Estes mad. And with Dr. Cole ... In a mind predisposed to crime, the insanity had born murder.

"I didn't want to. I had to." Dr. Cole pushed her chair back from the table so that Tabitha could see her round belly. "Someday you'll understand that a mother will do anything to protect what's hers." She rubbed the expanse of her pregnancy.

"This interview is over. Leave the room." Tabitha looked away from Dr. Cole. That pregnancy was more fruit born by the drugs, or delusions, or whatever had taken hold of the ship. She imagined what it would feel like to have a pregnancy of her own. But she didn't picture Ezra beside her.

"Very well." Dr. Cole stood and walked to one of the room's two doors. "Mary will be in the corridor should you have further questions." She waited for a response, got none, and left the room.

Tabitha removed the blue box from her pocket. If she followed Dr. Cole, Tabitha would meet Mary in the hall. Mary would escort Tabitha off the ship, and that would be that. She could then decide whether to send in a well-armed force to arrest the crew of the Errand and rescue whomever, or whatever, the attendants were. Or she could let the ship go. Or she could ...

Tabitha stood and moved to the second door. There were so many people in cryo. It was her job to protect them, too, and to find and rescue the men. This was her chance to find answers, and perhaps her only chance to avert a violent standoff. She put the blue box up to the wall and waited. The device took almost a minute to access the emergency code. The second door hissed open. She peered at the empty corridor on the other side. With a flick of her wrist, she opened her mapping program. The map was, of course, incomplete. But with every step she took, she would add to it. She flicked the projection away, turned left, and walked toward answers.