So I just talk into this? Alright, alright.

It was, I think, fifteen days into the long-haul journey when the storm hit. I was on the passenger deck, engaged in conversation with a well-respected academic type, a Doctor Chase or something – I’ll have to check the manifest – Doctor Rubric Chase, Class B Dissent Risk(deceased), Cthon – T – then that other woman came over and pretty soon they were arguing on something or other. I try to spend at least two hours a day getting to know my passengers, you know? It really helps if they feel they are able to trust me in case there’s an emergency. There was this great lurch to the side first – that would have been the gravity wave breaking against our shields – and then the whole air was thick with alarms.
The way the passenger deck is laid out, it’s like a big promenade that runs the whole way around the ship. It’s supposed to be a joint social space and observation deck – the restaurant is there, the pool. Hah, the pool in particular. That gravity wave, like I said, it sent us staggering, sliding along the deck, but it also knocked the pool’s gyro out of whack. What a rip, right? You spend big on a gyro-pool that’s supposed to balance itself in case of unexpected acceleration, deck shifts, and the gyro itself is what ends up causing the biggest problem. So from the water’s point of view we were pretty well straight down, and while we’re all getting our bearings and checking all our teeth are still there a waterfall twice as high as Old Niagara pours down on us sideways along the deck. Well. It was a thrilling ride, I’ll give you that.
That all happened in the first minute. Then the real damage was done. The electrostatic storm rolled in, right through our barrier. Went through the whole ship like Cook’s coffee. ES storms are pretty well safe for humans, but play merry hell with electronics as you might guess. While we all sat with our hair standing on end, the ship bucked and rolled underneath us aggressively.
We must have drifted away from the purplish glow of the storm eventually, because the rocking died away to be replaced by the most dangerous sound you can hear in space.
Nothing.
Nothing means no engine, no backup rockets, no distress beacon. I cursed the air to myself and got up to make my excuses to Doctor Chase and that woman. She was very pretty, I remember thinking. You don’t have to write that down. Don’t write that down.

Excuses made, I took off at a brisk walk towards the bridge, where the engineering team would make apologetic faces and wring their hands. When they arrived, before the lead man (elbowed to the front from behind by mob rule) could speak, I held up a hand.
“Tell me what happened,” I said.
“Well, we seem to have crossed a stormpath,” said Leonard, a greenskinned navtec engineeer. I gave him an unimpressed look.
“Is that your expert opinion?” I said.
“It’s all I can do in the circumstances. If I could use my map device, I could find the likely culprit.”
I shrugged “We’d still be stuck. First priority is getting the engines running again, which means first priority for me is keeping the passengers safe and entertained to stop them from eating each other while we wait for rescue. Am I right in saying the SOS is offline as well?”
A woman nodded. Muijen was the radio officer, a short, round woman who licked her lips often. “Radio should be priority one, ma-
I cut her off.
”We limp the ship to safety, then we work on non-essentials.” I could tell MJ was mad at being reduced to non-essential, but I took her aside and told her we all needed to pull together on this, or some such rubbish. Worked on her like a charm, just like it always does. The first thing you learn, as captain, is that everyone has one big red button that you can push to make them do whatever you need them to do. That done, I made my exit before anyone had a chance to ask me anything difficult. We pull together on this boat, no matter what, and a big part of pulling together is knowing when to split up. You follow? No? Well, it’s rather complicated nautical thinking, you know. I wouldn’t expect-
But I’m talking over myself.

An announcement was sent up to the passengers to gather in the ballroom, and gather they jolly well did. Chase, her lady friend and her husband – yes, a household of three. How old-fashioned. There were a couple of businessmen from competing firms – AkI0 System Dynamics and Flashlight Technologies, I think. manufacturers of useless computer parts – T
After that, there was a society lady from Huln, and her daughter – one of those neo-swing musicians. This is all starting to sound very Agatha Christie, isn’t it? Gosh, well, it was purely by accident. Anyway there was no murder mystery on this trip. A mystery, yes. A murder, yes. Murder mystery, no. I’ll get to that, hah. Well, anyway. There were a fair few people. About thirty. Oh, that doesn’t sound like enough? Well, not many people will choose a long-distance trip on a boat like ours over one of the high-speed transports. Our clientele is pleasure cruisers, really. Occasionally scientists.
Oh! I forgot to mention him, but I suppose I should. Yes, the Agent Intergalactic. What was his name? Holmes? No, Holness. Holness Black, that was it. Little man, ingratiating manner. Bit of a social butterfly, going around talking to everybody all day. Couldn’t get out of the habits of the interrogation room, I thought. Yes, like this one. Yes, it is funny. Can I carry on?

Before I talked to the lot of them, I made it a point to show up on the edge of the crowd and get a read on their state. Everyone had been relatively unscathed by the storm so far, thankfully, although people being what they are I heard a few rumours to the contrary. Overall, I would have gauged the mood of the room as thoroughly rattled, verging on shaken. Stirred too, in a few cases, and very damp from the pool that was, as far as anybody could tell, showing no signs of slowing down in its circuit of the deck.
I got up front and gave them some more business about pulling together – specifically by staying as far apart as possible and sticking to our respective rooms unless asked not to. The last thing we needed was some malfunctioning spabot massaging the life right out of some poor soul’s body because they wandered into the wrong sauna. That did the trick pretty well.
As I was slinking off the society lady from Huln cornered me, and I remembered her name. “That little man, the squirrelly one in the dark clothes. Is he… an Agent?”
I nodded and explained that he was on leave, which he had decided to take on a cruise through the unmappable region for reasons best known to himself.

Yes, the unmappable region. Why would somebody take a cruise through such an unsafe-sounding place? People climb mountains, don’t they? Stop interrupting.

Anyway I was quite suspicious of this lady from Huln – I could tell she was from Huln, you know, because of the compound eyes, which she hid behind dark glasses in polite company but showed me just fine- well. Anyway.
“I’m a little concerned, you see. I think he’s been taking an interest in me and my daughter. I’m worried he may be some kind of… strange.”
“I’ll talk to him,” I said confidently. “We don’t want any kind of strange on this trip. No more of it, certainly.”
Pretty soon after that I was dragged away by a buzzing from my personal comm.
“Captain, we’re receiving a telemessage,” said Muijen, and I nearly bit back at her that the radio was second priority. I held my tongue though, and asked her what was so important. She looked around in a very obvious surreptitious manner and pulled me into the communication booth. On the screen wall an angular man in Agency Yellow sat below the angular Imperial flag, stretched out on the wall like the skin of an exotic animal.
“Attention, Cruise Vessel Pluton. Do I have your attention?” he said. “You have an Agent on board your ship. He is not, as you have been told, there on leave. Agent Holness Black is on the trail of a notorious terrorist, named Lydia Marsage. She is believed to be armed, and planning an attack on an Imperial homeworld which may be imminent and involve hijacking your vessel. It has been decided to reveal this information to you now so that you may assist Holness Black with his inquiries. Please confirm. Repeat, your vessel is under direct threat from the renegade Lydia Marsage. Aid Agent Black, and you will be rewarded. Please confirm. Please confirm. Please confirm.”
“Well?” said Muijen.
I nodded. “Send it.”
I hoped that it wouldn’t come to this, obviously. This interrogation. But everything I did, I did for people who needed help. I hope that will be understood.

Yes, yes, that will be all.