Free Seeder Saga by Adam Moon

Michael Stevens the murderer was awake.
    Her imagination was running terrible scenarios that all involved Michael in one way or another , and in each scenario he was covered in other people’s blood.
    She decided to arm herself before approaching him. He was a murderer and he couldn’t be trusted. Now she was thankful for the firearm she’d been provided. No one else knew of it but her. It was to be used only under extreme circumstances. She didn’t know if this situation warranted it now , and she didn’t care to give it a second thought.
    She pulled the panel from the navigation module and reached inside for the hidden gun , but the holster was empty. She got down on her knee and looked around, hoping it had simply fallen out. She desperately wanted to believe that mission control had simply forgotten to put it there, but that was an idiotic thought; they missed nothing. The mission was too important for mistakes.
    Now she was even more afraid of Michael. He was the only other person awake. He must have taken it. That was not good.
    She made sure her pocket knife was in her pants where she’d left it. It was. It wouldn’t do any good in a gunfight, but it was better than nothing.
    Then she had a thought. “Computer, who took my firearm?”
    “I did not witness that.”
    “How can you not know? You don’t go into stasis. You were on-line to see Michael’s pod malfunction. You saw me break the rules and get in mine too early. You must’ve seen it.”
    “I go off-line periodically to conserve power.”
    “Don’t you have motion sensors that wake you up?”
    “I think motion sensors are a great idea given the mission, but I am not equipped with them.”
    “God dammit. You’re as inept as the fake test computer was. Tell me how many people have been woken up since we departed? If it’s only been me and Michael, then I know he’s the one who stole my gun.”
    "I’ve had to wake Michael six times to repair stasis pods. He repaired his own and the pods of five colonists. Do you want to know the names of the colonists who were revived?”
    “No.”

Confrontation
     
    The pocket knife felt far too dinky in her pocket, but she held it in a death grip like it was a mighty sword. If Michael tried anything she could have it out of her pocket and across his throat in a flash.
    She saw him crouched down, tending to his own pod. He had removed a fluid line and was right in the middle of replacing it with a new one when she said, “Well , hello, sleepyhead.”
    He jerked and bumped his head on the underside of the pod. He was rubbing the pain away as he turned to face her , a big dopey smile spread across his face. Was that the smile of a demented person?
    “I didn’t know anyone else was up. Is everything okay?”
    “Yeah. I broke the rules and went into stasis too soon after waking up , so I have to stay awake now for six hours before going back.”
    “You were already woken up? Why? What happened?”
    She thought about lying but decided against it. “A man from mission control sent me dossiers on the entire crew. It detailed the testing we went through and how each of us got through it.” She left out the part about the contact being a ruse to ascertain their position. He didn't need to know that Greg was not actually with mission control or that he was an enemy of the United States, because that would not help her accomplish what she was after. She was trying to put the guy on the spot. She didn't want to give him an out.
    “Anything juicy in the reports?”
    She wondered why he was trying to deceive her. She saw his report. She knew what he’d done to get here.
    “Your report was interesting.”
    He furrowed his brow and waited to see what she had to say.
    “It detailed what you did to the other crew members.”
    “I don’t know what you mean.” He stood up straight and stretched his back out. She wished he hadn’t, because he was a monolith-sized man, easily three times her weight and twice as