Connection - 43

Chapter 43

Everen was slowly recovering. Well actually, compared to most of human history, it was probably going to be a very quick recovery, but for her, it was still agonizing to just wait in the hospital bed. At least when Janna was there it was tolerable. Even if she was just typing or thinking in silence, it made everything more bearable. Sometimes Janna would tell Everen random things just to fill the silence. Everen could tell she was avoiding talking about what was going on with the captain too much. It made sense. Talking about stressful things would probably make it more difficult for Everen to rest and recover. But still, the curiosity would kill her faster than the neck injury.

Right now though, Janna wasn't here. There was probably a whole mess of logistics to figure out now that the captain was locked up, and Janna was surely right in the middle of everything. Everen was feeling more lucid than she had in the three days or so she'd been in this bed. It was finally time to tell Kerra what was going on.

She reached out with the connection. Kerra?

Finally! What happened?! are you alright? was Kerra's frenzied reply.

Yeah, I'm recovering. Captain stabbed me in the neck when we ambushed her.

What?! That's wild. I'm glad you're recovering but oh my stars, Everen that's terrifying.

Now I'm just lying in bed trying to get better. I can't talk. I don't think I've ever loved telepathy more than at this moment. Although I wish you were here so you could scratch this itch for me since sitting up is not... great right now.

I wish you were here or I was there too, Kerra said, sending a huge feeling of heartfelt sorrow.

So what's new with you? Everen asked. I don't have much news. I think they're intentionally keeping it from me.

Oh that sucks. I don't really have anything new going on here. Everen's been having me walk around the city to see if she can find the other weird afterlife ghost that's here but we haven't found him yet. Everen says she only sees him once in a while though so it's fine. It's been nice to get some exercise and see parts of the city I normally never visit!

Suddenly Envy hit Everen like a ton of bricks. She'd always felt cooped up and confined by Abyssia, so when she'd been offered the chance to go to another planet, she'd jumped at the offer. But now not only was she stuck inside a spaceship that felt tiny compared to the huge underground city, she was stuck in bed while her recluse, shut-in sister finally got out of her apartment for once. I'm glad you're having a good time, she said, trying not to let any of her bitterness leak though.

I don't know how good of a time I'm having recently, but getting out has definitely helped.

Everen was about to ask about the most recent episode of a holovid series Kerra had been telling her about when Janna eased the door to the infirmary open. Oh, Janna's here, I've gotta go Kerra.

Go where? Kerra joked. Just kidding. Talk to you later!

"Everen?" Janna said, looking concerned. "Bernardo is here. He wants to ask you a few questions. Do you feel up for that?"

Janna had taught Everen a couple of sign language signs and the finger-spelling alphabet, so Everen nodded her fist in the sign for "yes."

"Come on in," Janna said, and Bernardo entered the room.

He was a wiry man with scruffy black hair and tan skin. He had round glasses and wore his uniform buttoned up all the way even though you didn't have to do the top three buttons if you didn't want to. He was serious when it was time for work, but good-natured and laid back when it was time for play. He had been one of the lead investigators in the rag-tag volunteer forensics team, and it looked like he was one of the lead investigators in the murders still.

"Hi Everen," he said evenly. "I just wanted to ask you about your experience a few days ago in your cabin. Do you mind if I record video of this conversation? Just to be used for this investigation of course."

Everen tapped her index and middle fingers against her thumb in a sign that meant "No."

Bernardo clearly knew what this meant because he said, "Alright, thank you," and he hit a little button on the side of his glasses. "I don't want to take up too much of your time, and I understand that you are unable to speak right now. We have gotten testimonies from Janna and Benji, and we just want to confirm the story with you as well. I am going to tell you a version of the events that occurred, and you signal to me if I say anything that does not match with what you remember. Make sense?"

"Yes," Everen signed.

So Bernardo read what happened off a sheet of paper. Everen didn't have to stop him at all. As far as she remembered, he had every detail right, from the time of day to where everyone was positioned in the room. When he got to the part where Everen blacked out, he stopped and said, "And then you lost consciousness. Is that correct?"

"Yes," Everen signed, then tried to indicate "What happened next?" by holding both palms out facing up to mean "What" and then moving her hand in a vague, circular motion, the gesture for "continue" since she didn't know any signs to convey her meaning well.

Bernardo seemed to understand her, but he said, "I can't tell you any more at this time unfortunately for a number of reasons. But rest assured, Clarisse is being dealt with." He stood up. "Thank you for your time, Everen." Then his expression softened. "I do hope you get to feeling better soon. We're all grateful that Janna was able to save you. Not only are so many of us happy to call you a friend, but you are also literally irreplaceable when it comes to the running of the ship. Hang in there."

Everen smiled in acknowledgment of his kind words and he turned around to leave.

After he was gone Janna popped back into the infirmary. "Okay, now that he's gotten your testimony, I don't care if they tell me I still shouldn't tell you anything. I don't care if we get in trouble for collaborating or whatever, you deserve to know what's happening. You do want to know what's going on, right?"

Everen signed a vigorous "Yes!"

"Okay, so things maybe didn't go as smoothly as I made them seem earlier." Janna pulled her chair over to the side of Everen's bed and signed. "Sorry about that. I just wanted you to feel okay in the moment."

Everen signed "fine," bouncing her thumb from her open hand against her chest, hoping Janna would get the message that there were no hard feelings.

"They do have Clarisse under watch, but she's vehemently denying that she did anything. She says she stabbed you because you were threatening to kill her if she didn't do everything you said and she thought you were the murderer. She claims the three of us were working together, since Benji didn't have an alibi for the first murder and you didn't have an alibi for the second two." Janna rolled her eyes, clearly sick of the ex-captain's lies.

Everen smirked and signed "same," extending her thumb and pinky into a Y shape and moved her hand back and forth so it pointed at both herself and Janna.

Janna smiled back. "Everyone recognizes that Clarisse's story is pretty unlikely, and it's clear that she attacked you, which doesn't paint her in a good light, but they don't think there's enough evidence that she killed Warren, Ptolemy, and Haven." Janna frowned. "So they've been keeping an eye on me and Benji too, though they've let us have slightly more freedom than her. There's still a guard posted outside this room."

That surprised Everen. She'd hoped Clarisse would just confess since she had three witnesses testifying against her and she had be caught literally red-handed in trying to kill Everen.

Janna closed her eyes and rubbed her hand on her forehead. "I don't know why we didn't put a recording device on you or anything. Everything would be so much clearer if we'd done that. We really should have thought of it too." She opened her eyes and looked back at Everen. "So that's the situation we're in. They're gathering evidence, looking into all the details. The forensics team is much more efficient now that they've narrowed down the suspects. I didn't mention your aliens to them. I figured that would be something you'd want to explain yourself."

"Yeah," Everen signed. Then, after a pause, she fingerspelled: "U-N-I-T-S" and raised her eyebrows in a yes-or-no question.

"You want to know if I told everybody about the units? Yeah, it was really important that we all be on the same page with that. I hope that's okay."

"Yes!" Everen signed quickly. "Thank you."

"Good," Janna said. Then she gave Everen a small smile. "You should be feeling much better by tomorrow. I think you should be able to sit up and support your own head. The medicine on this ship really is pretty incredible. You should probably hold off on speaking for a while longer still. Want to learn more signs?"

Everen smiled and nodded her fist. Now it felt like she was the motes, learning a totally new way of speaking. It was really cool.