A/N: Welcome back! I would like to let you know that there is reference to suicide in this chapter. Also an autopsy.
Anyways, here we go!
Plop. Plop. Plop. Three big fat raindrops reverberated against the metal roof of the cab they had acquired to transport boxes. Hulking dark thunderheads illuminated by flashes of bluish-white lightning were blowing in from the East. Marjorie looked out of her window to see the clouds devour part of the Great Ring that stretched across the sky, as if they craved the iridescent colors. By the end of the ride, they had overtaken the sun Numai itself. It reminded her of her childhood back on Earth.
"The storms will eat the sun, but it will put up a fight and force them to spit it right back out!" her dad would tell her and her sister when the summer squalls rolled in. She smiled at the thought of it.
Almi District was located midway along the Northern Peninsula and was much different than downtown, or the neighborhoods on the slope of Mona Zymuna. Here the buildings were a lot smaller, more like those would expect in a city on Earth. Its population was incredibly diverse. There were Ri who had lived their whole lives in Pyrana, or moved from neighboring cities and islands in Archipelaga, or from the Pangaean Continent, Antarctica, or the various other worlds of the Phoenician Union. Other species from the Allied Worlds and beyond crowded into the district and the city as a whole.
In particular, humans, or as they called themselves, "ex-terrestrials", of all cultures made up a sizable segment of the population, many of whom were refugees of the Water Wars and widespread political instability. Little shops and restaurants lined the streets, a smattering of which had Christmas wreaths and decorations in the windows in anticipation of the upcoming holiday. Their apartments 221A and 221B, were on the fuzzy border between many of these areas.
When they arrived, the two private detectives ferried the boxes into the lobby as fast as possible in order to beat the rain. It began to pour just as Daniel carried in the last two boxes. In the short distance between the cab and the lobby he was completely soaked.
"Now all we gotta do is just get these in the elevator," he said, picking up another box.
"More moving. Fun," Marjorie said completely straight-faced.
Eventually they hauled the boxes into the elevator and into the 6th floor hallway. Marjorie placed her finger on the biometric scanner pad, which prompted the door to unlock and allowed them to enter. The inside of the apartment was dingy and the walls were covered with a black-and-white pattern that looked like it was taken from Victorian London. The living room had a bluish carpet with a blue couch and a black armchair surrounding a coffee table. The TV masqueraded as a pane of glass built into the wall on the opposite side away from the couch. Panoramic rain-streaked windows lined the far side of the room. Occasional flashes of lightning lit it amid low rumbles of thunder. Books and techy gizmos were strewn across the living room, with the occasional dirty dish dotting it. A half eaten pastry from the Argentinian bakery across the street sat in a cup on the coffee table.
"I don't have a striped frog-bat in the microwave this time. Or any other former or current living thing."
"That's…good to know, I guess," Daniel said. "Is there any other science in the microwave that I should know about? Or in the refrigerator?"
"I froze some salamanders in the freezer. There's also a jar of eyeballs preserved in formaldehyde in the refrigerator."
"Great," he said sarcastically. He was used to it by now.
They moved the majority of the mess out of the living room and into the kitchen. They began the process of opening the boxes and cataloging the images inside, matching them to people they were able to find via social media. They found close friends through his family, and then acquaintances from there. The result was a massive web of people that Daniel projected as a hologram from his phone into the air. Hundreds of blue dots, each representing one person, were linked to each other and a large central red dot by yellow lines.
"Organize by clusters," he said.
The blue dots immediately rushed into clusters and changed colors to match the others in the clusters to group by who was closest in relation to who.
"Let's start the calls," Marjorie said.
And so they began the long process of calling all of Luke's acquaintances. The vast majority of the conversations went something like this:
"Hello?"
"Uh hello is this Ms. Rynaka?"
"It's Mrs. Yana now. To whom am I speaking?"
"My apologies. My name is Daniel I. Lee, and I'm a private investigator working for the parents of the deceased Luke Young. I would like to ask you a few questions, if you have the time."
"Of course. I don't know how much of a help I would be."
"That's fine. Just answer what you can. Anything helps. How did you know Luke?"
"He was a friend of a friend. My best friend from high school went to college with him. We met about 5 times."
"Were any of those times during the month of Olina in 5002AHT?
"No. I visited once during that month and he was not around. If I remember correctly my friend said that she hadn't seen him for awhile."
"When you visited the campus of the University of Pyrana?"
"Correct. I'm afraid there's not much else I can tell you."
"Thank you for your help." Daniel hung up and yawned. It was 10:00pm and they had been calling people for 6 hours. Starting a case was always the hardest part of the job. But it was a necessary part.
"He drew an incomplete circle on his work? Multiple times? Ok. Thank you for your help Dr. Tiloq." Marjorie finished up her call.
"Wanna finish this in the morning? It's getting kinda late and people are headed to bed soon," Daniel asked.
"Sounds like a plan. It'll give me time to think over what I heard today. Anyone tell you anything important?"
"Not much. Just that he stopped talking to people or showing up to things about a month or two before his death. What about you?"
"Same. Although one or two people mentioned that he was drawing broken circles."
"Broken circles?"
"Yes. A thick black circle cut into quadrants, with a small part missing in the upper left quadrant."
"Do you think it means anything?"
"I don't know right now. Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something. I'll have to think on it."
"Ok. Here, bright and early tomorrow?"
"Yes. 8:30?"
"Great. I'll bring some breakfast."
"Good night."
"Good night!"
Marjorie closed the door behind him. Although she did enjoy Daniel's company, she was happy when he left. Quiet and solitude were rare commodities in modern Pyrana. Although it was never completely quiet for her. Psychic noise–stray thoughts and emotions–constantly emanated from everyone around her. The only time it was ever quiet was when she was high. And well, that had not been for almost a year, thank goodness. She had trained herself to block out the noise, but it was still there in the background.
She put on a pair of clean, gray yoga pants and a black tank top. Normal sleeping garb for that time, really. But there was something unusual about this: her left arm. It was cold, bare metal. Yet the design itself was elegant; the metal mimicked the bone, joint, and muscle structure of the living arm, and had no wires jutting out or exposed whirring parts like in the old sci-fi movies that her dad and she used to watch when she was younger. She lifted the metal hand up to study it. The palm and fingertips were covered with white plasticine padding filled with thousands of tiny sensors. Near the top of the arm the metal disappeared into the shoulder. Scarred tissue surrounded it. She felt a slight burning sensation in the arm today, as well as an ache in her stump, probably from the low pressure system moving through that afternoon. She turned off the light and crawled into bed. On this particular day, she thought back to when she was first given the option of the robotic arm.
It had been exactly 1 year, 5 months, 6 days, and 13 hours since Marjorie lost her arm, 11 months, 8 days, and 10 hours since she left Earth, and 8 months, 8 days, and 8 hours since she began the therapy to regrow her arm. The Ri were very well known for their knowledge of biotechnology. It was one of the key advances of Ri civilization, along with starship engineering and Alanaforming/geoengineering. Unfortunately, it wasn't foolproof.
She was sitting on the frigid examination table as Dr. Tanoqa, her specialist, examined the exposed stump. She was a petite woman, of Antarctican descent who grew up on Aranaq in the Outer Worlds and came to Pyrana to pursue a degree in regenerative medicine. She was approximately 59 years old, had three adult children, and enjoyed gardening when she wasn't working. All of this Marjorie was able to deduce when they met several months ago.
"I'm sorry, but your body still isn't responding to the therapy," Dr. Tanoqa told her.
"We've tried everything, but the cells just won't rewind into stem cells. Even when the rewinding is done in the lab and the cells are implanted, they won't take hold and grow. I know that this is hard to hear, but we may have to consider other options."
Marjorie swallowed and looked back down at the exposed stump. She knew that the doctor's heart was in the right place and that it was hard for her to give up on this case. "Why?" she asked.
"We don't know. It's not a species thing. Many humans have been successfully treated with our methods. Unfortunately, limbs are tricky to regrow. Why it doesn't work occasionally is a mystery."
"What options are out there?"
"Cybernetics mainly. I will need to refer you to a cybernetics specialist that can cover more options, set up any possible surgeries, and calibrate the arm. Are you ok with this?"
"Yes."
"Again, I'm really sorry about this."
Marjorie just sat in stone cold silence.
It was one of those nights that Daniel had a hard time sleeping. As far back as he could remember, around the time of The Accident, he never slept well. But after he was shot in the Gaios Operation about a year and a half ago, sleep eluded him further. Nightmares of the war and far off places haunted him. For the most part, such dreams had tapered off over time after meeting Marjorie and becoming a private detective. However, the grew in frequency and intensity recently.
Now, I must tell you that there were three types of conflicts that the Phoenician Union became involved in in its thousand-year history: The first is an all-out space war with an equally advanced civilization, usually the Chula. These were the Border wars, and were fought over the rich worlds of the outer Phoenician Nebula, and were typically the longest and bloodiest. They rarely reached beyond the Border Worlds, worlds that were being terraformed and settled by colonists from the 30 original worlds. A notable exception to this was the first Chula-Ri war, in which the 30 worlds successfully came together to defend Alanaka against the Chula armada, which only expected to deal with one planet. The entire fleet was destroyed and the combined forces of the 30 worlds were able to fly right into the Chula homeworld for "negotiations." It was there that the charter for the Phoenician Union was drawn up, an embarrassment that the Chula never forgave the Ri for. These happened every century or two. It had been 50 years since the last one.
The second type was a defensive war against the warlike, nomadic alien species, like the Sycorax, that swept through the area every now and then. Such species were common in this previously fragmented part of the galaxy and are key to the rising influence of the Phoenician Union in the Orion Sector and the galaxy as a whole. Many Allied Worlds rely on the Union for defense against the roving invaders in exchange for preferential diplomatic and economic relationships.
The third type of conflict was policing the pirates and bandits, known colloquially as "Vandals" that hid on the fringes of the Border World space. Typically these were small operations in which nomadic ships would be seized and the Vandals arrested. The Gaios Operation was an intense version of this. So much so that is was nicknamed the Gaios Mess by the soldiers sent to fight in it.
It began when the Union Fleet noticed the disappearance of many trading ships along the Raxa route without a trace. No emergency signals were given, no ships found, etc. So the fleet sent a ship to investigate. What they found was the largest Vandal colony found in the history of the union: thousands of them had banded together in a network of settlements on a planet they named Gaios, which served as a base of operations. The result was a complete mess in which the Fleet chased their spaceships and the Army hunted them planetside for two years until the last and largest settlements were nuked into oblivion from orbit.
It was here that Daniel served as a medic for about 7 months after graduating with a pre-medical degree from the University of Pyrana. The original goal was to serve for three years and then go on to medical school. This fell to pieces when he was shot before his tour was over and sent back to the Central World Rakana to recover at the military hospital. 5 months later he returned to Alanaka and soon met Marjorie and began solving cases while intending to eventually apply to medical school. Emphasis on the eventually. It had been a year and a half and he still hadn't applied.
The particular dream that he had that night was a common one. He was on one of the massive plains the covered Gaios between the patchy shallow seas and vast deserts. The wind rippled the sea of grass in waves, as he walked between the two hills ahead of him, cautious of whatever may be ahead. The mech suit was set to camouflage, with the exception of the mauve medic armband at his elbow. He carried his laser-rifle in his hands, as sweat beaded on his brow and he swallowed in fearful anticipation of what was to happen. And then the shots began, and this time he ran, as fast as he could until he tripped.
When he stood back up, the mech suit was gone and he was shivering in a violent snowstorm. There was a passage in the ahead that he ran to take shelter in. The passage gave way to a warm and peaceful oasis, with a glowing pool of blue water with lily pads and other plants floating in the center. For a moment there was relief; he was safe and warm. But then he saw IT. IT was facing away from him, seemingly peaceful. But he knew better. IT was angry.
He sprinted back out into the snow and kept running for what seemed like hours, but IT was still behind him. Finally he collapsed in the snow.
Daniel sat up quickly and gasped for air before realizing that he was safe in his bed in his condo.
The dream was always so terrifying, yet so puzzling. "What was IT? Why am I so terrified of IT? Why can I never remember what IT looks like?" he thought to himself. It didn't make any sense. And why ice? Having grown up in the lowlands of Archipelaga, Daniel had never been to a place with that much ice in his entire life. He pondered this until his phone alerted him to get up.
The condo had a nice kitchen, a bath, a living room, and two bedrooms, one of which Daniel had converted to an office. He owned it since his family died in The Accident 8 years before and rented it out to various tenants while at school and in the army.
After going through his normal morning routine, he chose a generic business outfit for the day. Black pants, black shoes, white shirt, red tie, topped off with a long gray coat and a black hat. To the unfamiliar observer, such garb would seem excessive for a tropical climate; yet it keeps the wearer cooler by wicking away moisture and blocking the sun Numai's rays.
He left the condo, closing the door behind him and locking it.
"Where are you going Mr. Lee?"" a soft voice said from behind him. A sleepy school-aged girl poked her head out of the door across from him and catty-corner from Marjorie's.
"I have work today Stella. Do you have school later?"
"Yes," she sighed. "But I don't want to go to school, I wanna stay home and go on Numaila break already!" she exclaimed exasperatedly, referring to the New Year's Sun Festival that was drawing closer and closer. "But mama says I have to go, and I have a quiz today. Don't tell ANYONE," she whispered, "but I'm scared about the quiz"
"Quiz on what?"
"The Worlds."
"Which Worlds?"
"All THIRTY of them."
"Do you know the Central Worlds?"
"Alanaka, and Zaraka, and Rakaka and Orakana and Erana, Lorakana, and Kanaka."
"See, that's not so bad. How many of the Middle Worlds do you know?"
"I know Corba, and Arba, Eutheon, Sorba and Aranaq and Atheon, and ALL the Moons of Iris. And from the Outer Worlds, I know Torr and Hantang, and Tarroq, Miran, and Dedalion."
"You're halfway there!" he smiled. "You just need to learn the rest of the Middle Worlds and the Outer Worlds. Instead of trying to learn all the worlds at once, try and learn them in lists. It'll be easier. Now go and get ready for school before your mom gets worried about you."
"Ok. High five?"
"High five."
Stella flashed a grin and ran back in the condo. That kid could brighten anyone's day.
He took the elevator from the 6th floor to the ground and walked out into the streets of the Almi district. People were rushing towards the metro to go to their offices. He headed toward the metro, stopping at a coffee shop to pick up some breakfast.
The line was always long at this time of morning, snaking around the shop and threatening to burst from the inside as people crammed in to get their early morning dose of caffeine. A TV buzzed in the corner.
"The decision as to who will host the 304th Antigravity Olympics will come out soon. Many cities in the Phoenician Union are being considered, the most prominent of which is the city-state of Oma. The King of Oma is expected to give a speech if the city is chosen, as will President of the Union Alexandra Jhen. In other news, the United Nations of Earth continues to debate whether or not to officially become and Allied World and accept aid to combat the Water Wars. Opponents cite a concern for national and planetary independence."
"When will they ever learn that independent nations are a terrible idea?" a woman ahead of him asked her friend.
"The humans never had a true Global War, or a Cataclysm. Their World Wars didn't even come close in severity. I think it will either take that, or they will gradually learn from us," she said.
"I certainly hope for their sake it's the latter. Billions of deaths are not worth it. And they have nukes so the damage will last longer"
"I'm fairly sure that the Union would intervene if it ever came to that."
Eventually, he reached the cashier. "Hello, how may I help you today?" she asked in a perky English accent.
"Two medium coffees and two slices of the bluefruit pie."
"For whom?"
"Uh Daniel, please."
"Ok." She wrote his name on the cups. "That will be 15.93 Phoens."
He handed her his credit card. "Here's your receipt. Have a nice day Daniel."
"Thank you, uh, Clara," he read her name tag, and then briskly walked to the pick up line. After getting his order, he rushed back to his apartment and onto the next portion of the day.
By some miracle Daniel was able to balance the pie and the two coffee cups from the coffee shop against the flow of foot traffic back to Marjorie's apartment. He came to the 6th floor and knocked. The door opened by itself so he stepped inside and was greeted by a steak knife flying right in front of his face and implanting itself in the wall.
He turned to Marjorie. "Why?"
"Bored!" She picked up another one.
"Wait let me get out of the way first!"
She threw another when it was all clear, and then got up to grab plates and forks.
"I swear you're going to fracking kill or seriously injure me someday," he said when she got back.
"Nah. Perhaps a few minor injuries," she joked.
They sat at a small wooden table just outside the kitchen. Marjorie cut off a piece of her slice with her fork and chewed it slowly. The flavor was very different from anything she ever encountered on Earth. The closest she could describe it is like orange, cherry, and raspberry swirled together with bittersweet overtones.
So what do you think is gonna happen with the UN?" Daniel asked between bites. "Do you think they'll become an Allied World?"
"As the situation becomes more desperate they probably will. As to whether it will happen soon, probably not."
"Do you think that they should?"
"I couldn't care less what they do so long as it doesn't affect me. What do you think?"
"If they know what's good for them they will accept. Our geoengineers could stabilize the climate, stabilize sea levels, and increase food production, and the like."
It was a typical Ri response. Having lived and worked with them for several years, Marjorie had come to expect this. As an outsider, she had a unique perspective into the minds and lives of these aliens. From the near-pathological fear of division and nations to the view that they were leading the charge into the future she saw nearly everything about themselves that they failed to see. Ri were an intriguing species to her.
Marjorie then picked up her coffee to take a sip when she noticed the writing on the side. "Daniel, with a smiley face," she read.
"Yeah, the barista was really friendly today," he said, embarrassed.
"She's in love with a man with a metal arm from the mid 20th century. You can tell from the way she dotted the I."
"You're making that up."
"Yes I am, but who knows for sure. There are many odd things out there."
"True."
"So more nightmares last night?"
"Yeah. Did you listen to them again?"
"I knew you were in distress, though I didn't read your thoughts. However, that combined with the fact that you have bags under your eyes led me to deduce that you had nightmares."
"Yeah, yeah I did."
She began to go to ask what happened and he cut her off, saying, "And I don't want to talk about it."
She understood.
After breakfast, they spent the majority of the morning calling more and more people. Until finally they found someone who could help them.
"Hello?"
"This is David Hanto, correct?"
"Yes. And who might this be?"
"Marjorie O'Sullivan, Private Investigator. I have been hired by the parents of the late Luke Young to find what factored into his death. Would you be willing to answer some questions?"
"Of course! Luke was a good friend of mine. It's probably best if we meet somewhere to discuss it."
"Wherever works for you is what works for us."
"Do you think you could meet me tonight at my condo?"
"What's the address and what time?"
"34589 South Peninsula Avenue, Ryxla District, Condo 12-3. 7:00 is the best time for me."
"Wonderful. We'll see you then." They hung up.
"We have an appointment," she said. But first, they had to go to the morgue.
The two PIs stepped into the bright Archipelagan sunlight. The heat was unbearable. Of course the heat was almost always unbearable in Pyrana. There was perhaps a month or two out of the year when it was actually pleasant, and then it was usually raining all the time. In fact is was one of those rainy days a year and a half ago when Marjorie practically dragged Daniel over here 2 days after they met.
The Central Morgue was located in the Political District, the hub of politics in the Phoenician Union. It was on the western edge on the 67th-72nd floors of the same building that held many of the Utilities offices, right next to the police department. They took the elevator up and met Ren on the 67th floor. She was dressed in her trademark green sweater with black pants, blue converse, and a lab coat. Her black hair was cut short and her green eyes stood out.
"You are not going to believe this," she said as she shoved a tablet into Daniel's arms.
"Read over the original reports, and then read over mine as we head over to the Flesh room."
"You did an autopsy yourself?" Marjorie asked as the trio walked briskly through the facility.
"Yeah. Something seemed off so I decided to go over it again with the Flesh model."
"And?"
"Cause of death is still overdose on Serapin, but there's some other interesting stuff. Now tell me, do you two have any plans for New Years?"
"Not yet," Daniel said, halfway paying attention.
Marjorie shook her head. "You?"
"My mom and my grandma are visiting from Arama, near Oma."
"The grandma that thinks she's a time traveler?"
"Yeah that one. She's gone a little bit off the deep end as she's aged. But we still love her."
"Is this the same one that hates me?" Daniel asked.
"Yeah. Sorry about that. I shouldn't have brought her to the lab that day. She still won't tell me why she got so angry with you. I think she thought you were someone else and just started yelling at you before she realized she never met you before. Hopefully that won't happen again."
Finally they reached the Flesh room. Bright Fluorescent lights lit it and a bubbling vat of milky white flesh sat in the middle. The programmable organic matter was one of the greatest technological advances of Ri civilization.
"Here, put these on," Ren passed them both white lab coats. After putting his on Daniel placed the tablet and his phone on recording mode on a floating table next to the vat and pulled on blue latex gloves.
Rin went to the computer and with a few keystrokes, cause the Flesh to begin to take shape. The milky white substance drained, leaving what looked like a corpse in a gown, with all the necessary cuts and stitching.
"Ok, lets take a look," Daniel said. "The deceased, Luke Young, is male, Ri, Py'ri race. He has black hair, pale skin. Height is approximately 5'10", weight 155lbs." He motioned for the Flesh to pull back, revealing a perfect model of the double hearts.
"Given the toxicology reports and the characteristic extensive damage to the muscles of the left lateral heart and right lateral heart, cause of death can be ruled Serapin poisoning. The levels in the report and the damage are consistent with the amount contained in a bottle of 100 50mg tablets. There is also other damage not associated with the poisoning in other parts of the body."
He picked up the left hand of the model. "Bruising is present near the joints of the left hand. It appears to be a week old at time of death, and pretty severe. There is relatively recent erosion in the MCP joints and DIP joints on the fingers, as if the phalanges of the fingers were forcibly dislocated and then forced back together."
"Torture," Marjorie said.
"The brain appears to have sustained multiple mild concussions, the right tibia in the leg shows evidence of regrowth in the months before death, indicating broken leg, and there are other large bruises on the body."
"Only the broken leg was reported, when he was treated at the emergency room 1 month before death," Marjorie said. "He didn't report the others because he was hiding something from the authorities and whoever was torturing him."
"What do you think it was? Drugs or drug trading? Genetic information, exotic animals, some sort of contraband?"
"I don't know, but whatever it was, be it an object or information, it was most likely what he died for. Think about it. If you want to hide something, and hide it permanently, you're gonna want to destroy any evidence of its whereabouts if its an object, and any copies if its information. He killed himself because he either knew something someone else wanted to know or knew where something was that someone else wanted to know."
"Just what would be so important to give up your life for? Or to torture someone for?"
"I suppose we'll just have to figure it out." She turned to Ren. "That'll be it. It was a pleasure as always."
"No problem," she said cheerfully.
"Ren, please tell me the original medical examiner was fired because that was one of the sloppiest autopsy reports I have ever read," Daniel said.
"That's another strange thing. It was a federal examiner that did the autopsy."
"The plot takes an interesting twist," Marjorie said.
"Anyways, thank you Ren. We look forward to seeing you in the future," Daniel said.
"No problem. It's nice to have company. As you can imagine, the dead don't really talk all that much. Take care, both of you, and stay safe," she showed them the door.
The two detectives headed to the Bad Wolf Pub in a neighboring district for a quick dinner before braving the traffic to the Southern Peninsula. In an alleyway next to it, Marjorie noticed the broken circle spray painted in black.
"It's the same broken circle Luke drew," she said.
"Do you think it means anything?" Daniel asked.
"Yes, but I don't know what." Clouds were beginning to gather, so they hurried into the pub before one of Pyrana's famed storms blew in.
