10. UIT CSI
Fletholm walked over to the burnt-out hulk of the mining moth and stopped at the yellow and black plastic strung across the bay entrance, patiently waiting for the investigator in charge to have time for him. Several minutes passed before a very dirty small man in an even dirtier boiler suit came over to him.
"You's de special guy?"
"Yes, I guess so."
"Boss said tae take good care a ye. So, whut can Ah do tae help ye?"
Fletholm was relieved; obviously his connections to the UIT Internal Police had worked their magic. He noted the heavy Verasi accent of the man for future reference, moved under the plastic and extended a hand in greeting.
"Fletholm, counter intelligence. I am looking for any data storage devices aboard that ship. Anything at all, even the burned remains of anything."
"I guess ye are in luck den, dem 'ere geezers took de main computer oot 'n smashed de auxiliary. However dey obviously didnt'na kenn aboot de extra storage 'n scanning capacity o yonder mining moth. Dat computer is unscathed. Dar's some unusual gear in de small port, mebbe ye wanna have a looksee?"
"That would be interesting. You say that the scanning computer is unscathed? I will have a set of technicians down to take it to my lab."
"Ye cannae do dat son, twould interfere wit de investigation. Ye can have it when we hae finished milking it."
"No. I am sorry that I interfere in this way with your investigation, but I must insist. As a matter of fact, I must insist that you let your investigation point to a natural cause even if it doesn't. This is a matter of national security."
He revealed his credentials and let the investigator study it. He had more than ample authority to remove anything from any scene of crime if the security of the nation was in danger.
"Ah guess ye can den. Ah'll write a report saying dat all was burned oot, yeah?"
"It would be preferably if you would. Thank you for your co-operation Sir."
"Ye doo no Sir me, Ah work fae a livin."
They both chuckled and separated, the investigator to pack his kit and Fletholm to investigate the scanner and wait for his own crew. This was the best news of the day. When he had arrived in "Pearls for Sus" ready to be ripped financially, but also with a new mission for his contact, it had been closed and several medical units were outside. Asking around, he found out that a person had suffered a bad case of poisoning with botulinum toxins, probably from an old bottle of wine. Even if they had tried to administer adrenaline to him, he just got much worse and died. A simple query to the data sphere had confirmed that it was Hasdrubal that had died. He sighed and dispatched one of his agents to figure out what had happened. That was now two hours ago, and he was not really in doubt as to what had happened, but now he needed to find the details of how.
###
Riddik launched his Marauder without getting flight approval from the STC, not because he was being obnoxious on purpose but because he was focused on the one mission that made sense in his World right now; finding and saving Keria. He entered the wormhole and tightened the chest strap further, readying himself for evasive action. He re-entered real space and immediately boosted down and right, twisting his ship to avoid the incoming fire. Nothing, no ships came up on the radar only a mass of debris where the frigates and Nemesis had been destroyed. Frowning but glad that he would no be hindered, he started scanning for live pilots in the form of ejection pods. Several responded to is call for IFF, with one of them showing critical status for the life support systems. He boosted towards that one and picked the Serco pilot up, continuing along the most efficient vector to pick up all the pods in the least amount of time. He spotted Keria's pod and noted that the pod was functioning with one unconscious but alive pilot inside. He moved directly to her pod and retrieved it, the others could wait. He left his pilot seat and let the Marauder boost into infinity as he moved down to the auxiliary life-support unit and extracted Keria. He checked her vitals, no permanent damage. As far as he could see it was a question of neural overload and maybe one or two burned out implants. He kissed her forehead gently and put her in the crash couch inside the auto-doc, making sure that the straps were securely fastened before moving back to his seat. He picked the remaining three Serco pods up and moved towards the wormhole. A set of eight circles of radiation signified incoming ships, and Riddik hit the overboost button to avoid any incoming Itani. The incoming ships turned out to be three battle scared Prometheus's, two battered SVG's and a trio of very damaged heavy bombers with Serco IFF codes, making Riddik wonder where they had come from. He hailed the front Prometheus, but did not get a reply. Probably some Spec Ops team, he didn't care at all. He had Keria, and that was all that mattered. It was the only thing that mattered.
###
"Well done boys, looks like you hit the nail right on the spot."
Silia threw a news stick onto the table where the two diplomats were playing a game of Go. They looked up at her smiling face and relaxed; ever since the hit they had been on the edge in case the UIT police came for them.
"What does it say?"
"Well Vaso, you can read the details yourself, but generally it says that a fire broke out in a mining moth due to faulty electricity, and another story talks of closing "Pearls for Sus" because a customer died of Botulinum poisoning. You did good."
Arhem nodded, it has been his idea to use the botulinum, but not as a stand-alone poison. The wine had contained enough botulinum to kill half the station if untreated, but it was fairly easy to treat. A shot of adrenaline would stop the worst, and give time for the emergency services to get him to the intensive care unit. The second ingredient had been a very small amount of cyanide in the almond cookies, not enough to overshadow the effects of the botulinum, but when the adrenaline to treat the botulinum poison hit the nervous system, it would trigger a super destructive cascade of destruction that the cyanide had already started. Thus the symptoms of the botulinum would hide and the treatment would greatly enhance the real cause of death, cyanide poisoning. The waiter had removed the cookies and delivered them back to Arhem in the kitchen before receiving his pay. In this case immunity for the crimes he had committed a long time ago in Initros, and thus a renewal of his Serco citizenship. He was right now on his way to Pyronis, back to fulfil his duties to Lady Serco.
"A time for new missions I guess? Or do we just continue to wait?"
Silia laughed out loud.
"You should know boys, nine tenths of all time spent in the diplomatic corps is like time in the army. It is waiting."
###
The medical crew rushed the burned and vacuum damaged body of an Itani bomber pilot from the docking bay to the large medical facilities in Ellias Stand, the largest in Itani space. The pilot was not breathing and hadn't done so for quite a while but that didn't really matter. The body had been so damaged that it would probably have to discarded anyway, and as far as the IDF standard bionic implant told the system onboard the stretcher, his brains and nervous system was still fully functional and ready for transplant. But they hurried; it was a question of minutes now. Unlike the Serco military that routinely cloned their soldiers and kept memplants of the soldiers updated every month, the Itani did not believe in that. Once you were dead, you stayed dead and the Itani people would mourn you appropriately. Thus a death loss of a pilot for the Serco was a setback of six months plus new conditioning, for the Itani it was irretrievable. That was one of the reasons that the medical facilities were the best in all of known space, and partly a reason that the war had never escalated beyond a border skirmish. The Itani people were not ready to accept the multi-thousands deaths such an escalation would take. That is also why the research into the Omega project was so important, and why it could not be allowed to fail.
Inside a secluded medical bay, a single person was worked on by several medtechs. His increasingly shallow breathing and deathlike pallor were indications of a body failing its host. The medtechs were however at a loss, the body was completely unharmed; it was the mind that had decided that it was dead. Captain Taerow had been in a coma like this for six hours now and apparently he would be dead in another six hours or so no matter what the medtechs did. They informed Professor Raewon that they could do no more for his pilot and left him to die in peace.
