Culprit

"I know who the culprit is," Emidio said. "I investigated a lead, Ljubiša accompanied me so I have a witness to back up everything I'm about to say. I am fairly certain I have a definitive answer."

"Hold on," Brigham raised his arms, "Why did you bring me out here alone, why not discuss this in front of everyone? Also why isn't Ljubiša with us here."

"I didn't want to repeat the same chaos we had in our first investigation, people getting riled up into a frenzy, pointing fingers at each other, and so on. I wanted to go over everything with you in a calm manner since the decision is officially up to you. I didn't bring Ljubiša along because the three of us would attract too much attention and then we would need to include everyone in the discussion."

Brigham exhaled, "Okay, you're right. So what have you got?"

Emidio took out a bundle of folded papers from his pocket, "Take a look at this." Emidio pointed at the papers, "This is the part of Mok's files I had to read. A lot of it contained instructions on what to do in cases of emergency and repairs for the ship." Emidio shuffled his papers and pointed, "Right here. It says the door to the engine room warp drive is shut, it can't be opened by any personnel, only the repairmen at the Solatium corporation have the codes to open the door."

"How did Mok open it then?" Brigham rubbed his chin. "When I ran towards him the engine room doors were already open and they closed behind me."

"That's the thing, he didn't open them. The engine room doors are closed and sealed because of fire hazards. The warp drive does tend to overheat and it can malfunction and set itself on fire. There is also a risk in space combat that the enemy will fire first precisely at this area to stop you from escaping by destroying it as we did towards the Young Aryans. The door functions as a safety mechanism, because the door is sealed, the ship's AI can drain oxygen out of the room and put out a fire by itself.

Mok was trying to turn that safety mechanism back on when he fumbled those wires that killed him. He did succeed but he killed himself and locked you in by accident. The AI probably scanned the room and detected a life form, you, and it didn't drain the oxygen. However, because its protocol prevents it from opening the door, thus you almost suffocated in the smoke."

"What are you trying to say?" Brigham said nervously, his head began to connect the dots. "How was the engine room door opened in the first place?"

Emidio lowered his head, "The culprit opened it…."

"No."

"There was no one else who could have opened it since the door was closed and sealed when we took off Nova Occasio." Emidio paused, "The culprit had to have opened the door to plant the bomb into the engine room. There was only one person who could have done it. Curro."

Brigham crouched to the ground in a mix of disbelief and betrayal, "But that's impossible."

"None of us could have opened the door, you would have suffocated in the smoke," Emidio raised his head, "He was the only person who had the technical know-how to hack the door. Not even Mok possessed such skills. If he did he would have hacked the door himself to close it and wouldn't fumble the wires that killed him."

Brigham hit the ground, "You said he had an air-tight alibi! He was in the computer room and he didn't activate the AI assist mode, he didn't leave his post! You used the AI assist so you could be the culprit! You could have left your post!"

"Listen," Emidio crouched to calm down Brigham, "I am just telling you what I found out. I don't have the knowledge or skills to open that door. You don't have to believe what I say in the end but hear me out."

"Fine," Brigham stood up angrily, "Tell me. What else have you got? How was Curro able to leave his post, without turning on the AI assist mode without us noticing? If that's possible don't Ana and Roy lose their alibis too?"

"The navigation computer needs constant and immediate attention, if Ana had left it for a few minutes we would have drifted off course. If Roy hadn't operated the communications relay manually we wouldn't have any way of communicating with each other while we moved. We constantly need to keep each other informed and work in sync, he would have had to have turned on the AI assist if he left it for a few minutes or else we would have noticed radio silence."

Brigham reluctantly nodded, "You did turn on the AI assist though," the captain squinted his eyes.

"I did and you can suspect me, but let me go over Curro," Emidio took out another paper. "The main computer is in control of the vessel's weapons and its operator is supposed to do calculations of his own and check if any of the other officers made a mistake in their inputs. Since we didn't have any combat in the early part of the trip, the only thing Curro had to do was to oversee if we were making mistakes. It is a very demanding job, he is constantly doing parallel work and checking it with the computer, but he could have left it without us noticing. Especially, with me using the AI assist mode and with Roy and Ana working so diligently. There weren't many mistakes he had to correct, thus unnoticed."

Eimidio gave the paper he was holding to Brigham and the white-haired boy said, "This is a log of every command Curro ever typed into his computer, you even have a timestamp. If you observe closely, there is a blank of 13 minutes, where Curro hadn't issued any commands to the computer. The time it would take him to go to the engine room, hack the door, plant the bomb, and inconspicuously return. At the exact time, Ljubiša was off flirting in the mess hall with Lei Mei, leaving that part of the hallways vacant."

Brigham clenched his fists in frustration, "Your theory has a ton of holes? Why didn't he hack the door to close?"

"He probably couldn't risk someone seeing him, so he must've just run back and would use an excuse that he went to the bathroom if he ran into Ljubiša."

"Why did he plant the bomb? Why do this horrible act? Why did he open the door for me and let me survive if his goal was to kill us with the bomb? Is he a cultist? What are his motives?" Brigham kept rapidly firing questions at Emidio walking closer and closer to him.

"Hey," Emidio pushed him away and said, "His internal thoughts and motives are beyond the scope of my investigation. We won't know until we confront him. That is if you think this is enough to detain and question him. I know this is difficult, I know how close you two are. That's why I wanted to tell you one-on-one so we can look at this with a clear head. Do you think any of this is wrong?"

Brigham closed his eyes and frowned, I swore to myself that I was going to fight for justice and truth, now every fiber of my being is telling me to look away. Dismiss what he says, ignore it, it's all just speculation, and you have the authority to do whatever you want in this situation. However, is that what I really want? I do want to protect Curro but if he is guilty, I can't look away. I have to face the truth and question him. He is my best friend but right now he is a member of the crew first and a potential suspect. I have to see this through to the end.

"Um… Captain?" Emidio said.

"No," Brigham opened his eyes. "Everything you said makes sense, we won't know until we confront him with the evidence."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Brigham and Emidio fast-walked to the mess hall where Lupus was still celebrating their victory over the neo-Nazis, the happy atmosphere was cut with the sharpness of a kitchen knife with Brigham's words:

"Khalid, Ljubiša! You two are to detain and handcuff Curro and bring him to the bridge for questioning. I have reasonable suspicion that he may be the culprit."

Curro stood up from his chair and willingly put his hands behind his back, "I don't know what this is about, but I won't put up any resistance, I have nothing to hide. No need for the Khalid slap," Curro laughed while Ljubiša placed the handcuffs. The two guards took him away.

The rest of Lupus widened their eyes in surprise, most had forgotten about the culprit considering everything they'd been through. Everyone followed suit, Lupus wanted to hear about this new revelation.