Francie Bonay had very little sleep since she had left the Benchee colony on the preceding Thursday. Sleep eluded her both on the train to Artalk and in the Hotel at Yenual. Normally she would use a sleep aid but the thought of what awaited her on this trip had kept her mind in constant turmoil. Now, weary of lying wakeful in the claustrophobic area of her small compartment, she got up and switched her cabin monitor to show an outside view of the station.

  This must be Tau Ceti, she thought as she looked at the screen. There was not that much to see, of course, all these colony stations pretty much looked the same. Like the others this was a long, maglev platform with a shielded room holding people waiting to board. The only thing different this time was how few the number of passengers waiting was.

  This was better for her plans she thought. It meant the train would be running half empty with fewer chances of a witness to what she planned. It was despicable what she was planning but she had no other choice. Steeling her nerves she looked over at her compartment’s sole table and whispered “soon” to the man’s hologram on a pedestal there.

  As she looked back out at the platform her attention was attracted to the two people were standing together. The difference in their height was what first caught her notice. The tall one was in a uniform of some sort, probably a policeman she thought. The smaller one looked like she might be a Kemonian. She had seen Kemonian with their cat like features before but this one really stood out with the fanciest set of whiskers she had ever seen. What made them so stylish were the fuzzy ends carefully maintained on the end of each individual whisker.

  She smiled faintly; it was cute seeing the heavily muffled up the Kemonian was with only her fancy whiskers and ears showing. Seeing that somehow lightened the heavy weight that had been pressing down on her heart. Too bad she couldn’t get a better look but she thought the person might be female. Kemonians really weren’t cats but it also made her think of decorating the nursery with a cat motif.

  All that bundling she was doing must be because of those silly climate rules Tau Ceti was famous for. She had visited before and it seemed all they did there was protesting and arguing about the climate regulations. That was still better then Andromeda Prime’s rules. They didn’t allow any loud talking in public. Having to hold all public conversations in a whisper with constant requests to repeat something was so annoying.

  Thinking of how cold that Kemonian must be feeling right now Francie began to feel it too. It was purely psychosomatic she knew since her cabin temperature hadn’t changed but she still felt the chill. Reaching below the monitor she tapped the temperature to increase the heat but nothing responded. Only a warning popped up on the screen stating environmental settings were disabled while boarding due to safety reasons.

  A silly rule she thought what possible danger was there in her adjusting temperature in her own private cabin. Clearing the warning from the screen she went back to looking at the boarding passengers. As she continued to search over the people on the platform her attention finally focused on someone. “That must be the one”, she thought as her heart started to beat faster. To make sure she brought up a news article on her communicator with a story and pictures in it.

  Adjusting the monitor controls she moved the view until the person was centered on the screen and compared it with a picture in the story. Biting her upper lips at the match she finally turned and looked at the hologram on the table again. As her expression hardens she shifted her eyes to the perfume bottle beside it. “Soon” she muttered before turning the monitor off and headed back to her bed to try to sleep again.

  As the passengers climbed up the steps to board their car the conductor was there to greet them. The man was dressed in an old fashion conductor uniform with the big brass buttons and an antique pocket watch in his hand. As he met each passenger he greeted them by name.

  A few stopped to comment on his period outfit or question how he knew their name in which he would simply respond to both with “That’s my job”.

  As each of the passengers boarded the train a few would stop and comment to the conductor that their original assigned cars had been changed. For the few who complained about the change he informed them that it was due to a technical issue. Corporate had decided that some of the 1st class cars would be undergoing last minute renovations and had cabins had become unavailable. Luckily he said the train was not full so everyone affected was reassigned to other cabins.

  When the detective reached the conductor she was welcomed aboard as Felipa Pinjay. An alias the detective had been using every since her fame started to get in the way of her life. That along with keeping her picture from being taken had done a lot to give her some peace when traveling. The fake name was a bit odd but making it sound similar to her real one helped her respond correctly when anyone called her by it.

  After being greeted by the conductor the detective entered her car and looked around. The immediate area by the door was a small alcove with a partially open curtain. From a glance inside the detective could see cleaning supplies and a small settee. It was probably where the conductor rested when the passengers didn’t need anything. Past that along the corridor were all the cabins on both sides. It looked like the car could fit a dozen cabins, six on each side.

  As the detective walked down the aisle looking at the closed cabin doors she noticed a couple that were partially open with someone inside watching who boarded. Some curiosity from the passengers was to be expected but this peering through door cracks seemed a bit to creepy. Once she reached her cabin at the end she turned and looked back. The two doors that were open were no closed, the watchers gone.

  As the detective entered her cabin she was pleasantly surprised by the appearance. The line did continue the Victorian motif here as well but not to the point of being uncomfortable. The sleep platform was folded up into a overstuffed sofa with a lounge chair placed in angle toward it. Seeing a small cabinet built into the main wall she opened it to see a food delivery system. On the other side was a small but adequate restroom facility. It made her feel a bit easier when she realized that in spite of the Victorian looks it still had all the modern conveniences.

  When the last of the waiting passengers had all boarded the train the conductor headed out to the platform to cajole the remaining passengers to hurry up and board. He was getting worried, the route had barely started and already they were falling behind schedule.

  To each one he said the same thing “The train was about to depart, you should proceed onboard immediately”

  As he walked up and said that to most of the passengers they would stop what they were doing and proceed to the train. The exceptions were the woman and her daughter and the two men at the ends of the area. All four of them shook their heads in acknowledgement at what he said but kept continuing with what they were doing. As the other remaining passengers almost finished boarding the women and two men suddenly stopped what they were doing and got in line at the end.

  With the last of the passengers now boarded all the cabin monitors switched to an announcement about the train, available features, its destination and safety cautions. The public announcement also reminded travelers that walking between cars would be dangerous during a link transit and passengers should refrain from doing so. Also, during any periods of high twisting and flexing during a passage the connections between cars would be locked for their safety.

  The notice of the potential lockup of the cars was not something the detective had run across before but given the current route caution status she could see the need for it. She assumed train crew could still move about at those times but having passengers doing so would be a liability. After that a schedule of the anticipated route times and when the passengers would be free to move about the train the announcements ended.

  The detective switched the display to show the dinning car’s hours and menu. Looking over the menu the detective thought it all looked good but with the likelihood of high shaking during transits most of the passengers probably wouldn’t have much of an appetite. She decided she would take most meals in her cabin and save the dining car visits for the longer station stops.

  Hearing an argument outside her door the detective opened it to find the cabin door across from her open. Inside were that man Mister Williams and his servant. The servant was busy unpacking and laying out the man’s toiletries including a couple of pill cases on the vanity. Included was a small refrigeration box. The kind commonly used for carrying medicine or deserts that needed to be kept cold.

  While the servant was doing this he also seemed to be trying to convince his master to allow him to stay in the compartment with him. It was a surprising thing for a servant to request when traveling with their masters. Ignoring what the servant was saying the man Williams just kept a lying on the chair with a compress to his forehead telling the servant to hurry up and finish. It seemed the man was quit adamant about not wanting to share his compartment.

  The rush to finish was probably because they were about to leave station and the servant needed to get back to the 2nd class car. The detective was becoming more and more puzzled by the behavior of these passengers. She caught herself before she continued to analyze all this odd behavior. Reminding herself once again that she was on a vacation and not a case as she closed the door of her cabin.

  Looking around her cabin Felixia was at a bit of a loss as to what to do next. The middle of the morning was the worst time to be making a transit she had always thought. The timing of this transit meant that any food ordered wouldn’t be available until they exited at the next way station. She had always preferred a proper schedule for her meals. Eating at 2 or 3 in the afternoon would throw off her entire meal schedule. “Oh what a bother!” she thought as her stomach gave a sympathetic gurgle.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Listening to her stomach complain she thought about making a quick trip to the dining car and ride through the first link passage there just to get something to eat. Just as she was about to head out the monitor lit up showing they were on the final countdown to leave Tau Ceti. As she read that she could feel the train lift up on its maglev rails getting ready to slide into the worm hole.

  The monitor then switched to showing show passengers the entry portal in front of the train with the torus lighting up. An active entry portal was a common view popular with travelers and marketing media. The transport companies made it a point to show it to passengers to prepare them for the passage ahead. The detective did have to admit the swirl of colors and change in perspective looking through it was fascinating. Scientist claimed the shifting dimensions were something the human mind had difficulty truly seeing so everyone perceived it differently.

  Travel was something she had to do a great deal of in her career so portals had lost some of their magic to her. However she still did enjoy it and continued to watch until with an odd vibration the train entered the wormhole. With the train now officially in the link the monitor displayed the updated transit and arrival times.

  The display showed hour and 48 minutes, not bad she thought. With a status of orange or higher accurate transit times became harder to predict but it still looked like it would be less than 2 hours. At this level the turbulence would have passengers bouncing in their chairs. It will not be a very pleasant trip for most but at least it will be short.

  On rough link transits like this the detective was always happy about her size and Kemonian genes. It made her flexible and petite, that and a talent for napping she could get comfortably almost anywhere. The overstuffed couch looked like it would be perfect she decided. Grabbing all the pillows in the cabin she wedged herself into a corner of the sofa for a nap.

  For the other passengers on the train no matter how tired they felt sleeping was not easy. Most took medication to calm their motion sickness while others distracted themselves with some type of activity. For Mr. Williams, the man in the cabin across from the detective he spend the trip reviewing his finances. Checking a list of names he was carefully considering how best to spend his remaining money to do the most harm.

  For his whole life he had lived by one main principle and that was to pay back tenfold anyone who he considered to have done him wrong. In elementary school he had deliberately rigged the breaks on the bicycle of the class bully. In high school the team captain somehow ingested drugs right before a big game with mandatory drug testing ruining his future in professional sports. All because the guy dated his ex-girlfriend. Now a days he used his money to have others arrange his retribution, safer but not a satisfying.

  The woman and her daughter a few compartments back were also awake. They sat huddled at their cabin’s small table discussing what to do next. They didn’t have a plan when they boarded the train just a need and opportunity. They knew was the man responsible for destroying their family was on this train. The man had no plans to return to Tau Ceti so this was it. Somehow they wanted and needed him to pay for what he had done.

  The woman’s name was Hartford, Mrs. Lisett Hartford and her daughter was Sonya. Mrs. Hartford was a poor member of a military family who married “well” as society likes to say to the heir of the Hartford Group. Her husband’s family first made their fortune in mining when the planet was first opened for colonization. Later when the mines started to play out they had leveraged their connections to get government contracts.

  Their most profitable contracts had been in the food industry supplying school luncheons and military rations. An odd jump from mining to nutrition but very lucrative given how little parents paid attention to what children ate at school or the officers to what the enlisted ate. His marriage to Lisett was more for her family’s military connections then from any real love between them.

  The Hartford family did make a lot of money from the contracts and because of the public nature of the contracts were careful of their reputation. Early this year the machinations from a competitor group damaged that and bankrupt the family. A number of fake videos showed up purportedly being of the group’s food preparation facilities. They showed vermin, chemical additives and substandard ingredients being used. Later a number of rumors claiming children getting food poisoning began making the rounds.

  None of these could be proven or traced back to a source. The public outcry over the perceived food contamination and supposed lack of cleanliness and health risks to children drove the stock price to a record low. At that time an investment group organized and lead by a man called Robinson made their move. Exercising their call options the group quickly gained control of the Hartford Company.

  Conveniently after the company changed hands evidence showed up proving it was all a hoax. Of course the investment group had no direct connection with the ones who created the hoax. Officially their position was that they simply took advantage of the “unfortunate” situation. With no evidence there was nothing the Hartford’s could do.

  Her husband tried to fight it in the courts and failed. After her husband lost his temper at the verdict he publically called out Williams and his group for their despicable actions. Williams was known for his spiteful nature and it showed in what he did next. He brought a lawsuit against her husband for defamation and followed up by having the company board he now controlled to officially blame her husband for the rumored food contamination.

  The public humiliation and financial loss from the lawsuit cost them everything they valued in the world. In just a few weeks they had lost their home, reputation, social position and most of their money. After a few weeks of heavy drinking her husband committed suicide. That was the final nail to their social prestige, her daughter’s fiancé immediately broke off the engagement and now they were pariahs on their own planet.

  The last two cabins on the train held the two men ignoring each other in the waiting area. One of them, Mike Schubert was checking around the walls of the cabin with a pen shaped detector. Every time the detector went off he would check the values before moving on. Finally at the base of the outer wall he yelled “gotcha” at the readings he got.

  Pulling out a small toolkit he started working on removing the panel at that spot. Inside was a fiber optic cable carrying the external video and communications for the car. Working quickly he spiced in a connector and added a short range transmitter. Putting the panel back on he tidied up the area so no one would see anything wrong. Once done he went to his tablet and could now access the videos from the hall outside his cabin. Another check and he was able to see a cabin meal request Williams had made to the dining car.

  He had been working for Mr. Williams for several years now handling all the illegal electronic surveillance that was so important in the man’s business dealings. Williams was smart and always made their arrangements through several cut-outs with no direct ties to each other. That connection was destroyed when one of his illegal wire tapings was caught by the police.

  Although the information was directly assisting Williams in one of his semi-legal stock scams there was no evidence directly linking to it? Mike kept quiet about Williams involvement counting on the wire tapping being considered minor offense. At his trial the prosecutors showed stock options for the affected company in Mike’s name. The millions in potential profit made it a high felony and Mike spent the next five years in jail.

  Sitting in jail Mike quickly realized that somehow Williams had shifted the entire blame to Schubert. With the means and reason accounted for the police stopped looking into it any further. Williams made millions and Mike paid the price. After he got out he swore to get even which is how he found Gary.

  Gary also use to be a well known video blogger. His specialty was making humorous deep fake videos of famous people. A somewhat legal but not well thought of field. That all ended when he took a bribe from Williams to do a series of videos that involved one of his target companies. The resulting fallout cost Gary his media license and his career. Now he couldn’t even get a job making training videos for schools.

  Gary although talented enough wasn’t the sharpest tack in the box. He actually tried to blackmail Robinson over some recordings he made of their deal. The recordings showed Williams commissioning Gary to make a fake video showing a shuttle collision was due to pilot error. Unfortunately he forgot that recordings from a “media artist” known for making fake videos had little believability. Williams pressed charges and Gary spent three years in prison for attempted blackmail using a “fake” video.

  As Mike was finishing up his testing of the cut-in he made he received an alert on his communicator. In the cabin next door Gary had gotten tired of waiting and called his partner.

  “Hey Mike, did you get it done?” Gary asked.

  “Of course I did, you should be able to access the feeds on your system now.” Mike responded.

  “Oh, Ok I’ll try accessing it now.” Gary hurried up and tried accessing the bootleg video feed.

  “I see the corridor but how do I get his interior feed?” Gary asked

  “Media artist” Mike muttered as he went through once again explaining to Gary how to switch feeds and check out what their target was doing in his cabin. Normally the cabin cameras wouldn’t show anything unless the person inside pushed and held the video button on the monitor but Mike had overridden that. Now they could observe their target’s actions at any time.

  After Mike’s explanation it took Gary a few minute before he announced he had enough video recorded to get started. Mike still had his doubts but they would have to take the chance. They would only have one shot at making their plan work.

  “Take your time it need to be perfect, you know how vengeful this guy can be if we don’t succeed.” Mike responded

  “I will, don’t worry.” Gary then asked “Did you get access to the car’s environmental controls?”

  “No, not yet. The boxes are too localized; I’ll have to do it at the main terminal. It’s out at the far end of the car. We’ll need to wait till everyone has settled down first”. Mike answered.

  This was not totally unexpected. Being able to gain access to every compartment’s environmental controls from one compartment was never considered likely.

  An hour later as the train proceeded through the wormhole, the little detective sleeping and the other first class passengers restricted to their cabins the two men snuck out of theirs. Getting jostled by every twist and turn of the car the men made their way to the back. In a small cubby hole used by the conductor a small panel for the central environmental controls were found.

  This was a risky part of their plan but finding it empty t looked like the information they had gotten was accurate. The conductor spent most of the transit times up in a forward car playing cards with the other employees. It left this room unattended but Gary still kept an eye out. Mike quickly opened the panel and wired a remote control device for the car’s climate controls. With this they could set the passenger preference for any cabin.

  As they finished up their work the conductor was three cars ahead in the middle of folding. He had spent a lot of time and effort getting these card games started. Most of the employees on the Galaxy Express knew what a good job they had and didn’t want to take a chance of losing it just for a game of cards. It took a lot of time and having a reputation of a looser before it became a regular thing during transits. Now it was an integral part of the transit that everyone had gotten accustom too.