The following is a mystery divided into five acts. Each week, readers will vote on the way they want the story to progress in the next act. You have five weeks to figure out the mystery.

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The Aurora Express: Act III (3)

Tyasia has suggested that we search the rooms of Octavius Thompson, the tight-lipped lawyer, and Jake Harris, the singer-songwriter with a penchant for writing bad poetry. Tyasia tends to know more about these things that I do, so I decide to trust her gut.

Part of the rules aboard the ship state that we have to get permission from Commander Xu to search occupants’ rooms. Tyasia fills out the appropriate forms and then we both present them to Commander Xu in her office.

Commander Xu sits behind a large desk shaped out of sleek gray aluminum alloy. I fidget in my chair across from the desk, but Tyasia sits composed with her hands folded neatly in her lap. Commander Xu stares at the forms on her tablet for several moments before sitting back to consider me and Tyasia. I give a nervous smile. Commander Xu always intimidates me. Her silver hair is slicked back into a single braid, and the hard lines between her eyebrows narrow as she looks at us.

“I suppose I can understand searching Mr. Thompson’s room, given your report about his refusal to share information regarding his aunt. But Jake Harris? You can’t be serious,” says Commander Xu

I nod my head. “You’re completely right…we’ll just go--”

Tyasia cuts me off. “I have a hunch about Jake Harris.”

Commander Xu raises an eyebrow. “You have. A hunch,” she says slowly.

I have no idea how Tyasia is staying so calm right now. The look that Commander Xu gives us makes my blood freeze in my veins. Tyasia, however, remains unperturbed.

After a tense moment, Commander Xu finally speaks again. “Unfortunately, I cannot grant you permission to search an occupant’s quarters based upon a ‘hunch.’ You have leave to search Mr. Thompson’s room, but not Jake Harris’, unless you can provide more evidence to me that implicates him in any way.”

Tyasia nods. She must realize that this is the best we’re going to get out of Commander Xu.

Commander Xu continues: “Mr. Thompson is currently in the library. I will have him detained there. Per code, I have to let him know that his room is being searched. You will need to write up anything of interest that you find on official forms and we can determine how to proceed from there.”

The living quarters aboard the ship are small—only about 14 feet by 14 feet per person—so it doesn’t take us long to search Octavius Thompson’s room. Tyasia takes the main cabin while I take the bathroom.

“He needs a new toothbrush. The bristles are wearing out,” I announce to Tyasia.

“I don’t think that’s the kind of evidence Commander Xu will take seriously,” Tyasia calls back. I hear her rummaging through Octavius’ desk.

I exit the bathroom after not finding anything of note. I see a picture of a woman on the wall next to Octavius bed. “Who’s that?” I ask Tyasia.

“I assume it’s Octavius’ mother,” she says. “I read his file this morning. Apparently she died when he was about 14, and his aunt–ie., Dr. Foster–raised him after that.” Tyasia steps back and sighs. “I’m not finding anything of interest here.”

The first entry reads:

O.G. asking too many questions. Used override with Amaryllis to background check. Ex EEE. Sabotage?

After reading the entry aloud to Tyasia, I look at her to see what she makes of it. She scrunches her face in thought. “O.G. could be Olivia Green. We know that she asked a lot of questions. Seems like he must have some sort of special clearance to get confidential information out of Amaryllis, the ship’s artificial intelligence system.” Then she shrugs. “No idea what ex-EEE means.”

I think for a really long moment. EEE. It sounds really familiar. Then it hits me:

“ExoTerra Expedition Enterprises!” I exclaim.

Tyasia cocks her head to one side. “You mean, the main rival company of the Nova Interstellar Community Consortium?”

“Yeah, exactly! Do you think Octavius is saying that Olivia Green used to work for the rival company?”

“I mean, I guess so,” Tyasia says. She doesn’t seem nearly as excited by this information as I am. “But so what? It’s pretty common for people in the space industry to work for multiple companies throughout the course of their careers.”

“But I thought Olivia was a Grade 6 teacher. Do you think she’s lying about what she used to do?”

Tyasia shakes her head. “I reviewed her application for Aurora City. She literally included videos of herself teaching.”

I flip to another page. Again, it’s very cryptic. I read it out loud. It says:

C.B. reporting high BP. Stress. Told L.F. stay away from O.G.. Argued.

I look at Tyasia. “Ok, if we assume that C.B. is Dr. Chandra Basu, and BP is blood pressure…”

Tyasia continues, “And that L.F. is Lily Foster…I guess he was telling his aunt to stay away from Olivia Green? Maybe that’s why Octavius and Dr. Foster kept arguing? He wanted her to stay away from Olivia.”

“So,” I say. “Octavius definitely knows more than he’s letting on. And apparently Dr. Basu was giving him reports about Dr. Foster’s health, which she shouldn’t do.”

Tyasia nods. “We should interview them both again.”

“Maybe, but I think it’s even more important that we figure out what’s going on with Olivia Green," I say. "I think we should search her living quarters. She’s clearly hiding something.”

Tyasia take the journal from me and says casually, “Well, why don’t you go search Olivia’s chambers while I keep reading Octavius Thompson’s journal?”

I know Commander Xu doesn’t think that hunches count as evidence, but my gut tells me that something is up with Tyasia. First, she missed that the painting wasn’t flush against the wall, and now she doesn’t want me to keep reading the journal. I wonder how well I really know Tyasia anyway.  I bite my lip as I try to decide what to do next.