The Reverend Lon Kalopello walked to the mirror in his room and stared at his reflection. He still wore his colorful robes, but had no headgear, no collar. The robe itself was loose about him. He lifted a bit over his shoulder, looked at the gap between the fabric and his torso. For a middle aged man, he was still somewhat lean and fit. Clearly, he was not in the habit of eating the majority of the food he was offered at mealtimes.
"That was a close one," he said.
"How so?" asked a voice behind him.
He turned and looked at the hooded figure in a brown robe standing three paces behind him and to the right. "Are we to be formal or informal?" he asked.
The figure shrugged, and with open hands indicated that it was certainly his decision.
"I choose not to wear my hat now. I wear the robes because they take some time for me to put on. So right now, I say informal. Including address. No 'Your Brilliance' or 'Neutron Star' for me." He took two steps closer to the acolyte. "And in turn, the brown robe remains, but not the hood."
He added, "And no Sister Kendau. Merely Quillian." As he said that, he raised his hand and gently pulled down her hood revealing Kendau's short, curly blond hair and blue eyes.
She smiled and nodded slowly. "As you wish. But my question remains."
He turned and pointed to open satchel on a table in which several of the stardust bricks were visible.
"At first, I thought someone had stolen our stardust and made of with it. The repercussions from that would have been significant. It would have the potential to discredit and shame the entire organization in this octant. But it didn't make sense. And human nature being what it is..."
"Or X'ton or Y'val nature?" Kendau said with a smirk.
"While I never liked Karnaugh's monoculture theory, those two planets are probably as close as anyone has come. Maybe because their population is not terribly large, having only established a few cities. But even so, they're the same. Different generations of settlements, different planets, and definitely different morals and beliefs, but beyond that, they're painfully the same. The same as each other and the same as 'heirloom' humans. The X and Y have the same motivations as anyone else, love, hatred, anger, revenge, greed, you name it. But that's my point. If someone stole it to hurt us and they made it off the ship to the escape fleet, they would have a burning compulsion to rub our noses in it. My nose in it. Similarly, if it was random, then someone would have contacted us to get it back. it just didn't make sense. I needed to know what happened to it, which is why I stayed behind."
"Because of your decision, a lot of people stayed behind," she said.
"Yes. Either because they wanted to go down the hole with me or because I asked them. And I'm a bit more intent on trying to directly help those in the latter category. I looked around, but to no avail."
"You looked around?" the Sister asked incredulously.
"Not myself, not directly. But I had people working on it. If we hadn't been scanning practically every corner of the ship, we never would have thought about the galley. But it makes perfect sense. As stardust, it would remain inert, inactive, and indigestible."
"You mean we can get Sparkle from everyone's shit?" she said coarsely.
"You have such a way with words. But yes, if we wanted to do so. I'm just glad the J-Method keeps it all inert. At that dosage, I'm sure we would have had a few hundred Riders among the crew. Or imagine what would have happened if it hit the prisoners?" he asked.
"What do you mean? I thought the Riders were never violent," Kendau said confused.
"Yes, the Riders aren't violent, typically. But imagine if in a public holding cell it's obvious that 50 out of 500 prisoners realize they've been dosed and that the ones who are Riders would never be the same again. Hell, Quill, there's no way any of those people would get a steady supply of the stuff to 'medicate' or 'placate' them. There would be a riot. And they could also quite literally tear the shit out of some Riders because in their eyes, they were dead already. There aren't that many solitary confinement cells, and if you have that many people together and they outnumber the guards 25 to one, eventually you'll have a bloodbath on your hands."
"And that bothers you?" she asked.
"It would point to us. To me. And then everyone would know about the stardust. And then yes, that would bother me," he said moodily.
"So why did someone steal it?" she asked.
He chuckled for a moment as if remembering some fragment of a joke, then said, "I think it was just a mistake. That satchel, it's identical to the one we had that contained the recipes, salt compounds, and exoplanet mineral extracts. I think someone must've just got their bags confused. And that sort of stuff wouldn't have been allowed on the escape fleet. Data can be copied and transmitted, and materials can be synthesized. So he left it behind. And you found it."
"There aren't that many cooks. And practically all of their quarters were deserted," she said humbly. "So you've got the stardust. That's great. Does that mean we die happy in less than a day?"
"No, not if I have anything to say about it," he said confidently. "I like to have options. Staying here after the escape fleet left was a big risk. But the ship would be practically empty. It would allow us to find out what happened. And even if it had been malicious, I doubted that anyone would have been able to smuggle more than a brick or two out. An empty ship made it likely that we could find our stolen merchandise. The trick would then be escape. I talked to the captain and arranged for us to keep our pod. No one cared at that point, since there was space for practically two thousand other people on the escape fleet. They could spare a 5 person pod. I also talked with a few of the scientists. I wanted to know how long we had, what was the point of no return, details like that. I wanted more than a countdown timer I didn't understand."
"You do like to be ready for almost any situation," she admitted.
"Thank you. But the real trick is that that pod is just the decoy. Everyone will suspect that we have an escape pod and will want to use that. That pod is also a backup in case things start to go sunward. But the real escape pod will be the smaller one that's staged in the Science Lab on deck 40."
"You mean the one Jenkins is working on?" the Sister asked puzzled.
"I mean the one Jenkins is thinking about working on. But there's really nothing for him to do. It's got no power conduit system, no way for the engines to drive the pod. But that's the only thing that's missing."
"It's as if..." Kendau began slowly, "...someone, or some group of people deliberately sabotaged that pod so it wouldn't be a target." After a moment, she added with a smile, "I mean, hypothetically speaking."
"Most kind," the cult leader said with a slight bow. "But the one he is working on right now is our own escape pod, and quite likely doing it grievous and permanent damage. That serves two purposes. First, it prevents anyone else from getting off the ship and causing us problems in the future, and second, it keeps him the hell away from the real escape pod." He paused for a moment and stared into her blue eyes for a moment. "Full disclosure...I kind of stacked the deck a bit. I needed to make sure he'd be in a poor state of mind for the task I was giving him. I gave him some G-root."
"Reconstituted? I thought we were out of stardust?"
"No. And yes. But I had some small supplies left. Not for me, I wouldn't touch the stuff, but you never know where it might come in handy as a form of currency to get favors. For example, the assays on the ship could easily spot our cache. But with the cooperation of the person conducting the check...it tends to slip through the cracks. But that's not all...I had to make sure he'd be in a state of mind where he'd be inclined to use it. So I...offered your services. Or at least said I'd say that I'd put in a good word."
"As in, The Good Word of the Neutron Star?"
"Yes."
"So now I'm your whore to pimp out to whomever you say?" she said indignantly.
"No," he said quietly, and took a step closer. "Jenkins is merely a tool and I am using him. While you, you are so very different, so very special."
He drew her in and kissed her and after a moment, she embraced him. After a while, they slowly drew back. She smiled and said, "I just wanted to make sure nothing's changed."
"Don't be daft, Quill."
"Well, I stopped by and had a little chat with the Technical Sergeant today too, like you asked. So I can't say I didn't help in setting me up as Sister Q, Star Whore."
They both laughed.
She held his hand and said, "So what about this missing power conduit system, if I may ask?"
"I was actually just getting to that. It so happens that I believe the Star Cult may have exactly what is needed. Or rather, what we need. It is convenient to maintain our own supply of beryllium conduit...since you never know when you might need, say, oh 40 meters of it." With that she kissed his hand. He continued, "There's a spool of it in our supply room across and down from the poker room."
"The 'multipurpose room,'" she corrected.
"The same. Grab two spools just to be sure."
"You do like to play it safe."
"Of course. And then meet me at the edge of C-Section and Section B. If I'm already gone, then go directly to the lab."
Quillian nodded.
"Now, give me a hand with this," he said pointing to a vest sitting on a chair.
"Dress up? I thought you said you didn't want to take your robes off?" she said coyly.
"There are a lot of wackos out there. I'm not worried about the Children, but the released prisoners are a bit worrisome. And then the Security Sadist Squad led by Herr Kless is also on my watchlist." With Quillian's help, he pulled an arm out of his robe, put it through the vest, then back on, after only a few adjustments and not-very-incidental contact by her.
Once it was secure and hidden under his robe, she said, "ballistic fields will only buy you so much. There are more than just energy weapons out there."
"Yes, but they'd have to get close to me first, and I have enough acolytes to protect me. Brother X'til is usually close-by and he can move surprisingly fast. And as for poison, why do you think I always invite so many people to dine with me? In sequence, so that by the time I eat, it's been almost an hour since my first guests have had a sampling of all the dishes, and their health condition checked, surreptitiously, of course.
"You little holy turd," she said gently slapping his robe. "I thought I was a guest, not a food taster!"
"You were always one of the last people to share a meal. You were never the taster."
He looked in the mirror again and made sure the robes hid the B-F vest.
"OK. I have to go now and check up on our mutual friend Jenkins and see if what he's done to 'fix' the pod is as bad as I imagine. Wait five minutes, then get the conduit, then we get the hell out of here, maybe buy our own planet and retire.
They kissed passionately.
Then he pulled her hood up, bowed to her and said respectfully, "Till we meet again, Sister Kendau. May the Stars guide you."
She replied sternly, "And may your gravity always pull inward, Neutron Star."
With a quick nod, he took his leave.