The Haunted Traveler May 2017 Edition

tape had been taken that they were watching. Though
the Polaris wasn’t a large ship, not counting the mile
of cargo compartments it pulled through space, it was
taking some time reviewing the images of each of the
four corridors leading into and out of the shaft and
crawlspace where Benson had been working. They had
started out depending on the ship’s computer to do the
work and identify anyone moving through those corridors
during the specified time frame, but the video
kept freezing with the computer reporting an anomaly.
“What kind of anomaly?” Ruiz asked the computer.
“Unable to ascertain the nature of the anomaly,” the
computer said.
“That’s really strange,” the Commander said. “The
computer is actually saying it doesn’t know what is
going on. What would be considered an anomaly that
the computer couldn’t figure out?”
Ruiz punched several keys on the view screen console.
“The ship’s computer sees what it has been programmed
to see. The ship has only twelve crew members
on board, and the computer is programmed to
only account for those twelve. If we had a stowaway
the computer might determine they were an anomaly.”
“A stowaway going unnoticed by us for six months
would be an impossibility, Ruiz,” the Commander said.
“I was just giving an example of why the computer
might report an anomaly, Commander,” Ruiz said,
continuing to punch keys on the console.
“Danielle isn’t showing up on these recordings either,”
the Commander said, “and she’s no anomaly.”
“Crazy, yes,” Ruiz said. “An anomaly, no.”
“Go to the recordings taken in the sleep chamber,”
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