Interrogation

[John Randall 0]

OFFICIAL LOG

LIEUTENANT JOHN RANDALL

USS CHALLENGER

 

(Personal Log Stardate 13003.24

08 July 1969 O.R.)

 

 

John arrived at the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building) on what promised to

be another sticky day in Florida; the temperature was already 81 degrees

Fahrenheit, and the sky was blue as far as the eye could see. He arrived

by taxicab, paid off the driver, and went inside to some blessedly cool

air-conditioning relief.

 

He went to the room which housed the time cards, punched in, and made

his way out to the main assembly room of the VAB. He was walking toward

the table where he and a man named Andrews (John couldn't remember

the guy's first name) had been going over schematics of the engines. As he

walked toward the table, there came a hail from above him. "Hey, John

Randall!" came the voice of his immediate supervisor, Chris Barber. "You

got a minute?"

 

John turned and looked upward; standing on the catwalk in front of his

office was Barber, who was looking down at him. Randall shouted back,

"Sure, on my way!" As John began walking toward the stairs which led up

to the catwalk, Barber turned and went into his office. Randall made his way

up the stairs, and walked the short distance to Barber's office. He went in,

and looked at the NASA technician. "What's up?" he asked.

 

Barber gestured to one of the overstuffed client's chairs placed in front of his

desk. "Sit down, Mr. Randall," he said. "Got a couple of questions for you."

John walked over and sat down in one of the chairs, wondering what this was

about. Barber put down some documents he had been reading, and looked

at John. "Mr. Randall, how well do you know Mr. Freeman?" he asked the

Challenger engineer. John thought, 'Oh boy, here we go,' and replied, "Uh,

not that well, sir; we just happened to arrive at the same time."

 

Barber nodded and said, "I see. What do you think of the accusation made

against him?" John thought a moment as his mind drifted back to the events

of yesterday afternoon. A test had been run on one of the Saturn V rocket

engines, and the engine had caught on fire. After it had been extinguished,

Challenger chief engineer Eddie Freeman, who, with Randall, was posing as

a NASA technician, had investigated the scene of the blaze. Talking to each

other secretly over their ocular and auditory devices, Freeman was able to

discover what he thought was the cause of the fire; a line had been deliberately

left unhooked that helped feed fuel to the engine. As Freeman informed Randall

as to what he had seen, the engineer made his way back down from the scaffold

he had ascended. When he got back to ground level, Freeman was promptly

accused loudly by the director of the VAB, Sam Phillips, of sabotaging the

engine.

 

Freeman was ordered placed under guard by the irate director. Randall had

watched all this from the table where he and Andrews had been going over the

schematics of the engines. As Phillips continued to berate Freeman loudly,

John began forming a suspicion in his own mind of the man yelling at his

boss, and his friend. He thought the director was overreacting, and thought

to himself, 'This could be one of the terrorist gang we're looking for.' He also

had developed a strong dislike for the man calling himself Sam Phillips; and

swore to himself to keep an eye on the so-called director himself for the

remainder of the mission.

 

Turning his attention back to Barber's question, John said, "About him being

the saboteur?" Barber nodded. "That's right." "I can't say I buy that, sir," said

Randall cautiously. "The fire happened before he went up on the scaffold, as

I recall." Barber said, "But you didn't see him before the fire started?" John said,

"Actually, I did, sir. He was on ground level not far from where Andrews and I

were going over schematics of the engines." Barber steepled his fingers in front

of him, and looked thoughtful. After a few seconds went by, he said, "I see. Were

you around him all morning?" John said, "Not all morning, sir, but most of it."

Barber nodded, then unsteepled his fingers, and leaned forward. His gaze

sharpened as he looked at the Challenger engineer. "Do you think he could

have done it?" he asked with probing eyes.

 

John sat up straight in the overstuffed chair, and met Barber's gaze squarely.

"I don't know, sir," he said. "Like I said, I don't know him, so I really couldn't

say. If you ask me, though, that director guy was a bit harsh on him on real

short notice." Barber grinned, and leaned back in his chair. "Oh, you noticed that,

did you?" he asked with a smile. John glanced down for a second, and when

he looked back up at the NASA technician, his eyes had gone cold, and there

was an angry tone in his voice when he replied, "Yes, sir, I did." Barber

caught the change instantly. "Is something wrong, John?" he asked. Randall

abruptly stood. "I prefer to keep my thoughts to myself for now, sir," he said.

"Was there anything else?"

 

"No. that's all for now," said Barber. "Go back to work." John nodded, turned,

and left the office. He did not notice Barber look back up at his retreating back

as he left. The NASA technician thought to himself, 'I think there's more to this

than he's telling, but I'll respect his privacy for now.' John returned to the ground

level of the room, and made his way over to the drafting table, where Andrews

was waiting for him. The NASA technician smiled at John as he arrived. "Hey,

John," he greeted the Challenger engineer, then noticed the grim set of Randall's

face. "Hey, man, you okay?" John nodded, and managed a small smile for him.

"Yeah, I'm okay," he replied. "What's on for today?"

 

"Well, thought we might start you on some computer work today," said Andrews.

"You up for it?" Randall nodded. "Yeah, sure. There's one thing I need to do first,

okay?" Andrews smiled and said, "Whenever you're ready, my man." "Thanks,"

smiled Randall. "Be back in a bit." He left the table and headed for the stairs that

led to the catwalk. He ascended, and walked along the catwalk until he came to

the hallway entrance. He entered, and made his way down the hallway to the

office where Eddie Freeman had been placed under guard. It wasn't hard to find;

the guard standing in the open doorway made it obvious where Freeman was

being held.

 

As John approached the guard standing in the doorway, he heard Freeman exclaim,

"Two points!", and suppressed a smile. He walked up to the guard, noticing that

Freeman had turned and was looking at him. John turned his eyes to the guard.

"You got any objections to me talking to him?" He pointed at Eddie as he said

this. The guard narrowed his eyes for a second, then shrugged. "I'll let you talk

to him, but I'll be right outside the door. Don't try anything stupid." He started to

push past John, but the engineer caught the guard by the arm, and stared at

him with ice-blue eyes. Randall growled, "I never do anything stupid, mister." He

released the guard's arm, and stepped into the office, giving Freeman a quick smile.

 

Freeman kept his eyes on the guard for a few seconds as the guard took his position

in the hallway, then looked at John. "What's up?" John exhaled mightily, trying to

relieve some tension, and said, "You all right?" Freeman gave a smirk, and said, "Oh,

I'm great." Then, he leaned forward, and lowered his voice. "Figured somethin' out,

see," he said. "You know how Phillips laid it on so thick when he was accusin' me?"

Randall snorted, and lowered his voice to match. "Yeah, couldn't miss it." "If he's the

saboteur, then he shot himself in the foot big time," said Freeman. "Because now, I'm

under guard from the time I enter this building until I leave. If anything goes wrong,

I'll have an iron-clad alibi. As long as he's got me under guard, he can't make another

move without exonerating his patsy," grinning as he finished.

 

John nodded thoughtfully, and smiled back. "Yeah, that's true, he's kinda boxed himself

into a corner doing that. Wonder if the pressure is getting to him? His boss, or friends,

might be prodding him a little, and he made a big mistake." "Maybe they're just not

very good at this," replied the chief engineer. "But whatever his reasoning is, I've got

him over a barrel just by remaining within line of sight of as many people as possible."

John nodded. "Yeah, they don't strike me as being a well-oiled team either, now that

you mention it. It makes me wonder what the ultimate motive behind all this is." His

boss, and friend, smiled. "We'll probably find out, sooner or later." John nodded grimly.

"That's what I'm afraid of. Well, I just wanted to touch base with you." He looked at

Freeman significantly, who nodded, then Randall raised his voice. "I'll see you later,

man; take it easy, all right?" Freeman nodded, and raised his voice as well, which

prompted the guard to re-enter the office. "You too, man; take care."

 

John smiled, lifted a hand, and left the office, giving the guard a glare as he left.

He made his way back down the hallway to the entrance to the catwalk. He walked

along the catwalk to the stairs, made his way down them, and walked back over to

the drafting table where Andrews was waiting on him. "Okay, man, I'm ready,"

he said as he approached the table. The NASA technician grinned at him, finished a

Pepsi-Cola he was drinking, tossed the can into a nearby wastebasket, and said,

"All right, let's go up to the computer platform." Randall nodded, and the two men

walked over to the stairs leading up to the balcony that housed the computer complex.

They walked over to the main panel, and John had to fight down shock at how

archaic the panel was; he had to keep reminding himself that this was the latest

in technology for these people.

 

Andrews began explaining the various readouts and gauges to him, and John

just nodded, trying to give the impression that this was new to him. In reality, he

was secretly glad that Andrews was there; some of the gauges were totally alien

to him; but when Andrews gave the explanation as to their function, John knew

what they were for. He gave the panel his full attention, trying to memorize quickly

what each readout and gauge was for. He smiled briefly to himself as he remembered

his covert mission; he had figured out the language being used on the engineering

panel he and 'Dr. Jones' had found. This experience was a lot like that.

 

 

 

END LOG