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Coles was silent for a few seconds, but then she seemed to have come to a decision. “Very well Commander: as you request, I shall hold the report: thank you.” With that, she got up to leave, but, once outside in the corridor, she thought to herself Yes Commander, I shall hold back reporting, but I’ll leave myself a personal memo stating the report and the fact that you virtually ordered me to suspend it; there’s something going on here and this Agent is only part of it.
     
    Rachmel waited for Coles to leave and then spoke to the computer system “MAC.” 
       “Commander, what is your request.” 
       “Location of Leading Engineering Officer Miles.” 
       The reply was instant. “Biohibernation section.” 
       What the hell was he doing in there? She wondered: all checks had been finalised days ago. After a moment, she ordered “Request this Officer report to my quarters.” 
       The response was not what she had expected. “This Officer’s remote interface closed down by request.” 
       Why on Earth would he close down his interface in an area where MAC was not operational? And then another thought occurred to her, “Is there anyone else present in the Biohibernation section?” 
       “Yes, Leading Pilot Officer Hidson.” 
       “Is his remote interface also closed down?” 
       “Yes, by request.” 
       So, Miles and Hidson were holding a secret meeting.
       MAC broke into her thoughts. “Do you have further requests, Commander?”
      “Request for this Officer to report to my quarters is cancelled: no further requests.”
      After a moment’s thought, she ordered “Doorcom, no entry condition.”
       “Complied.” 
       Leaning back in her seat she began to put together the pieces.
       An Agent had been seconded to her vessel as a member of the crew; this was something she had never before experienced: this Agent had revealed that her true objective was to observe people who may be in contact with an alien species; how many people? And who the hell were they? Her Engineer and Pilot were holding clandestine meetings: was it possible that Miles and Hidson were her targets?
    What the hell was going on here? As Commander, she had enough responsibility for the well being of her crew, not to mention the safety of a multi trillion credit space vessel that was making its maiden voyage, without the threat of an agent and her targets fighting it out on board. 
     
    Hidson was stunned by the time Miles had finished. “You can’t be serious,” he said, sceptically. Miles just stared back, impassively. Hidson, realising that the man was deadly serious, went on “So, what the hell are we going to do? If, whoever they are, suspect that Andretta is onto them they could jeopardise the whole mission and our lives.” 
       Miles shook his head, “I don’t think they would do anything to put themselves at risk; after all, they would be of no use to the aliens, dead, would they?” 
       Hidson wasn’t convinced, “I don’t know; they could do something to terminate this mission and us, then escape in the ULiSS; theirs would then be the only story.”
       ULiSS were the Utility and Life Support Systems that were allocated one to each of the crew. Basically, they were individual exploration pods that had superseded the old-fashioned space suits, but with the added bonus of Biohiber technology and automatic home-seeking power units. In effect, the exploration modules could double as modern day individual life-boats should something untoward befall the Mother-ship.
       Hidson was adamant. “I say we go to the Commander; find out what’s going on.”
       Miles thought for a moment and then responded “No, we can’t do that; the less people who know about this the better for us to keep an eye on everyone; and what’s to say that these aliens would want to kill us anyway? Why? We haven’t done anything to them and there are only seven of us so what could