26.

As it goes, time waits for no man and time does move onto where it is coming close to two weeks since Carlos had been murdered. People seemed to be moving about with more confidence and less fear, not always moving, or gathering in groups of any kind. Rory took charge of the kitchens but remained under surveillance. He didn't mind that though, if it could prove his innocence then he thought the surveillance may just be a good thing.

It is possible that someone may have had a grudge against Carlos and things got out of control though at that those who knew him say Carlos wouldn't have hurt a fly, and then again, the how he was murdered and the condition he was found in are more than just cause for fear to spread, as gruesome as it had been while in no way being forgotten, people are well aware, still, the same people have become somewhat ... calm.

Just after six o'clock both Robert and Simon came off duty and also just happened to come close to one another in a corridor.

'Fancy a beer?' asks Robert.

'Are you mad? Do you not remember what happened to us the last time we had beers?'

'Unfortunately, I do.'

Both men laugh, and how nice it is for both of them that they could laugh about what had occurred to them. Indeed, things have calmed. Both chief officers continue on their way in opposite directions. Also being near-by, David nods an 'hello' to Simon before picking up speed to catch up with Robert.

'Excuse me sir.'

'Yes David? Is everything alright?'

'It is sir; I just wanted to talk to you about a possible work placement in engineering. It is what I would like to get involved with if that is alright with you?'

While slightly surprised, this impressed Robert.

'It is indeed David, good to see that you have plenty of enthusiasm. How about you drop by engineering after lunch tomorrow, and we can chat some more about coming to some kind of an arrangement?'

'Great, thank you sir. I am very eager to learn. I will see you tomorrow.'

'Good stuff young man.'

Robert went on his way and Jasmine soon catches up with David.

'So, what was that all about?' she asks as she approaches having seen David talking with Robert.

'Oh, nothing really, I am just looking to get involved with working in engineering.'

'Wow ... that is more than nothing I would say.'

'Yeah well, I won't get too far ahead of myself just yet; Robert might not even take me on at all.'

'It would be his loss if he didn't. So, what are you up to now?'

'Think I will go see Cindy and tell her my possible good news.'

'Cindy? Why go see Cindy when the two of us could hang out for a while.'

'Em ... Jasmine, I do like you, and I would love to spend some time with you, but you are with Tim, and I am with Cindy. I don't think it would be appropriate for the two of us to just hang out alone.'

'Why not? I have seen how you look at me.'

Jasmine moves closer to a speechless David and stares into his eyes. Putting her arms over his shoulders she moves close enough to kiss him. As it is and so often occurs in circumstances like this one, Cindy just happens to turn the corner at the very moment Jasmine's lips meets David's. Fuming with what she sees Cindy fires a book she had been carrying and it hit David in the side of his head, she then proceeds to storm off.

'Cindy, wait' calls out David as he began to follow after her. 'It is not what it ... seems.'

Cindy was long gone before David even got the word 'seems' out. There would be a distraction too making it all the more difficult for David to catch up with Cindy for as he moved, he almost collided with Badger. Neither David nor Badger knows of the other so no conversation would begin between the two. There wouldn't even be so much as an 'excuse me' or a 'sorry' for that near collision.

David walks back to where Jasmine stands. She hands him the book that had been thrown at him and then she walks away too. With everyone in the immediate vicinity having moved on, David stands alone in the hallway he had come to be in, disgusted at what had happened but he didn't have too long to think about or react to it for something hit him on the back of the head and that hit to the head completely knocks him out.

27.

Little after two thirty in the afternoon of December tenth Simon meets with Robert in the docking bay. The shuttle which had visited the planet with the burning rain had some damage on its outer hull. It seemed that the burning rain had indeed damaged more than just skin. The two men could reinforce all the shuttles with the amount of titanium which had been recovered from mining the planetoid they had come across and that is what they had come together to do, or at least begin to do.

'You didn't happen to see that young man I was talking to after we parted yesterday while you were on your way here, did you?' asked Robert.

'Who David? No why?

'He was to meet me in engineering just after lunch but never showed. He seemed eager to learn and get involved. I was gonna have him help us out here, but I am sure I will hear whatever the excuse is soon enough.'

'Yeah, he is a good lad though, respectful and intelligent. I would bet that he does have an actual valid reason for not showing up.'

'Bet? With what? There is no need for money out here.'

'We do not need money to have ourselves a little wager,' laughed Simon.

Robert smiled and the two men got to work. They would spend quite a bit of the rest of the day and the rest of the week working together on the shuttles.

***

Jasmine arrives to the mess hall with Timothy and could see Cindy sitting at a table by herself. Jasmine asks Tim if he could give her a couple of minutes, for she has some business to attend to. There were and are a number of very old arcade video games to one end of the mess hall so that is where Tim goes while Jasmine asks Cindy if she could sit with her. Cindy said that it wasn't alright, but Jasmine sat anyway.

'Look Cindy I'm sorry, what happened yesterday is completely my fault. I had noticed the way David looks at me and I wanted to see if that could go anywhere. It was wrong of me, but I was testing the waters and he wasn't having any of it. He really does like you; I would even go as far as saying that he loves you.'

Cindy looks at Jasmine for the first time since Jasmine came into the room. With tears beginning to well in her eyes, Cindy has a question to ask.

'Have you told any of this to Tim?'

'Jeez no, Tim is a nice guy and all, but he is no David, slim pickings and all, still, I can't complain though you are a lucky girl Cindy. To let you know too, if David had reacted like I thought he might then I would not have allowed it to go anywhere. I don't steal boyfriends, especially when I have one of my own.'

Cindy smiles as Jasmine stands up, having a number of reasons to believe what Jasmine says is true. Jasmine makes a move all the way to the other end of the mess hall, placed a hand on Tim's back and kisses him as he turns towards her. Jasmine then looks back towards Cindy and smiles, confident that the rift she unintentionally created is at least on the way to being mended.

Having not seen David all day up to this point makes Cindy begin to wonder as to why he had yet to try talk with her. Even before having had a talk with Jasmine, Cindy had wondered as to David's whereabouts. She had been ready to greet David's grovelling efforts with distain but now she just wanted to see him and make sure that all was well, is well, between them both.

Time to go play hide and seek, so to speak. After about an hour of searching, Cindy began to worry. Where could David be? Was he just trying to avoid her? Surely not after what had transpired a day earlier, but David was nowhere to be seen and no one seemed to know anything about where he could be.

Having given up her search there was only one thing left for Cindy to do and that was to go see her mom. Maria would hear not for the first time on this day that there was a problem with David's whereabouts. David has been one of the students who took the science class which Maria teaches, and he had not attended that morning's class. She had also been aware of David's no show in engineering. Now with Cindy's worrying, Maria has an uneasy feeling in her gut that something may not be right.

Maria tells Cindy to go stay in their quarters and she also arranges for Jasmine to go stay with Cindy, both girls were perfectly fine with coming together again. All is forgiven, or at least put aside. It may take a day or two to completely move on though a coming together with thoughts on where David may be leaves no time for holding onto any possible ill feeling to one another.

Where could David be? This is the immediate question that needs to be answered. There would be only one place Maria would be interested in getting to at this moment and security just so happens to be there already.

Kyle and Jinder Owens had three on duty members of security standing outside The Pathfinders main kitchen where Rory had been working for most of the day. When informed that Maria was on her way, two of the security team went into the kitchen and informed Rory to put the chopping knife he was working with down.

'Oh, what now?' asks Rory upon receiving the instruction from the members of security who had indeed entered into the kitchen.

'Sir, please, we won't ask again ... put the knife down.'

'Why? What is the problem?'

Maria arrives at the kitchen.

'Rory, do as the man says and put the knife down.'

He does put the knife down and asks again 'what is the problem?'

Maria asks Rory as to where David is, and Rory responds by saying that he does not know anyone called David.

'When was the last time you used your walk-in freezer?'

'Yesterday morning' says Rory not being able to stop himself from feeling as if he is being set up for something.

Maria signals to a security member to move towards the freezer. She follows while the other member of security stays with Rory. When the door to the walk-in freezer opens, Maria discovers exactly just what she had expected to find which also happens to be what she didn't want to find. Rory is soon taken once more into custody. Despite her gut feeling and expectation, Maria still was unprepared for what it was she had seen. So much hit her all at once though the thought of her daughter would be take dominance.

When Maria entered the medical facility sometime later Stanley was able to inform her that David met his end in exactly the same manor Carlos did. David had been hit on the back of the head by a blunt object before having his throat slashed from left to right with it being most likely that the attacker had taken an unconscious David somewhere out of the way to slash his neck for up to this moment no murder site had been discovered.

David had also had his belly cut open. Just like Carlos, David's stomach, intestines, heart and liver had been removed, after which David had been wrapped in cling film and placed in the main kitchen's walk-in freezer and that had been done without anyone seeing anything suspicious. Whoever done this must have known how to do what he or she has without attracting suspicion. With the access Rory has, it could be him, but that would be overly obvious, right?

Maria now has another task to perform and that would be to inform her daughter in a selective manner as to what had happened. The blood drains out of Cindy's face in an instant at the moment her mum tells her about David, and she completely lost all power in her legs as they turned to utter jelly.

Jasmine manages to catch an arm before Cindy hit the ground therein easing the fall somewhat. Cindy had feared the worst, fearing, and knowing are two very different things. The night which lay ahead, would be a difficult one, not just for mother and daughter but for so many others too.