The Freezer Read online

  “Surgery?” Marius muttered as he circled the projection. “Seems easy enough. But how do we handle such a weapon?” He shook his head. He was scared the thing was going to go off in his face.

  Sato grunted. “It’s a small bomb, no worries about getting hurt.” He winced as he saw my look. “The surgeons, that is. I’ve dealt with this sort of thing before. The explosive is just enough to tear the wall of the artery. It couldn’t hurt anything else. It would be smaller than the smallest firecracker you’ve ever seen. You wouldn’t even hear it.”

  I studied the slight Asian. “In what context have you seen this before?” I needed to know if we had inadvertently brought the very person responsible for all this into our sphere.

  “Captain Lawrence knew that I—”

  Lawrence cut him off. “I called CCF HQ, Tanner. The head of the military detachment is stationed there. I told him what I wanted and he sent me his best man.”

  “A civilian.”

  “True, but the CCF contracts me out to work with micro tools all the time,” Sato said.

  “Why aren’t you in the CCF? Why stay a civilian?”

  It was a loaded question and I had really put him on the spot. It was equivalent to asking an atheist what god he worships in a room full of Christians. Sato glanced right and left before saying, “I haven’t felt the need to join the military. I was educated in a field that provides a lot of work.” He said it all with that smile on his face, but I could feel the tension in his words.

  “Fine,” I said. There were those in the Confederacy who objected to the Council’s authority, but they didn’t seem to live too long. I continued, “Now tell me how we can remove it.”

  He sighed. “It’s not that easy. It most likely has a triggering mechanism.”

  Lawrence stepped forward. “What exactly is it doing right now? I can see it there only because it’s highlighted. But without the computer I’d never notice. So what’s it waiting for?”

  “It’s filing away the lining of his artery,” Dinova said with a glance at me. “It’s working right now, scraping a cell away at a time. Eventually the rupture will occur and...”

  “But why not just detonate, right now?”

  “That would make it obvious,” I muttered. “If it detonated, it would draw our attention. It would leave debris and a bubble of vaporized blood.”

  Marius gasped. “Which is exactly what we found in Bojdl though! You’re saying that wasn’t supposed to happen?”

  “Yes. The bomb’s purpose is probably to open the artery without detonating. That’s why it’s working on my aorta right now.” It was difficult to say it. Harder to know that death was just around the corner. But I forged on: “It’s the trigger that made it explode, as Sato said. It happened in both Bojdl and...Shaheen.” I stumbled slightly as I said it.

  Lawrence looked confused. “But what’s the trigger? Why did they explode?”

  I focused on Dinova and Marius. “Doctors. Have you figured it out yet?”

  They shook their heads, confused. It didn’t matter. The reason they didn’t know was because the chief physician of the colony and her assistant physician didn’t yet have all the information. Time to enlighten them.

  I looked at Sato. “You mentioned a trigger.”

  “Yes. If something interferes with the device, it detonates to ensure death.”

  “How much time until the artery ruptures?” I asked the doctors. How much time until I’m dead?

  She consulted her datachip reader. “The thickness of your artery, the rate of decay, the rate of natural repair...” She was murmuring to herself. “I’d say three, maybe four days.”

  Which gave me until early Saturday. It was now nearly Wednesday.

  On Saturday my aorta would split and my heart would take its last few beats as it pumped blood into the chest cavity around it. I would lose consciousness in just a few seconds.

  But before that happened, I needed to find the killer.

  And dispense justice.

  I said, “Before Shaheen died she suffered a small injury. A cut in the galley while preparing some food.” The vessel’s doctor had told me during our conversation. “The ship’s physician had injected some priority nanos to help heal the wound.” I stopped and waited.

  Marius looked surprised. “I injected priority nanos into Bojdl before his death.”

  Sato spoke up. “How long before? For each.”

  “Fifteen minutes before the rupture in Bojdl’s case.”

  “About the same for Shaheen,” I added in a soft tone.

  Sato was quick. “The nanos would have searched for any injuries to repair after entering the body. They would have found the weakening aorta and attempted to heal it. And that must have triggered the bomb.”

  “Exactly.” I turned to Marius. “The priority nanos actually caused the death in both cases.”

  He shook his head. “That’s outrageous.”

  Had it not been for the other minor injuries, the victims would still be alive, for another few days at least.

  “Best to make sure you don’t receive any injections, Tanner,” Sato said with a frown. “It’ll be a quick end.”

  * * *

  I watched the people in the clinic silently as I considered the situation. The killer could very well be there, but likely was not. Bojdl had indicated a male, and the only possibility there was Marius. Lawrence was my contact and Sato brought in independently because of his expertise. It couldn’t be one of them.

  “Dr. Dinova,” I said. “What were you doing on Europa?”

  She appeared instantly startled. “Pardon?”

  I snorted. “Doesn’t this all seem odd? You, Marius and Bojdl, all stationed at the same place last year. All three of you left together and came here. Someone kills one of you, followed by the investigator’s lover.” I clenched my teeth as I said it. Slowly, ever so slowly, I inched my hand toward the pistol at my thigh. “What were you three doing there?”

  Marius looked confused. “It was a research station, Tanner. We were part of a group of scientists looking for life. That’s all.”

  “Alien life.”

  “Yes. Under the ice.”

  Lawrence was watching the confrontation, soaking in every detail. Sato stood to the side and thankfully remained quiet. He probably had no idea what was going on, outside of the micro-bomb issue.

  “Go on,” I prodded.

  “The ice is ten kilometers thick mostly. Under that is a layer of water. It’s thought that there may be life in the sea.”

  “Of what sort?” In the entire Confederacy, no one had yet discovered alien life other than simple plants and multi-celled organisms.

  He shrugged. “Any type. It’s a research facility called Europa One, but people there refer to it as ‘The Freezer.’”

  I absorbed that for a long moment. No one made a sound.

  “Why did the three of you come to Ceres?” I asked Marius.

  He opened his mouth to speak and then stopped abruptly. He turned to Marina Dinova, who met his eyes.

  She sighed. “As Simon said earlier, a spot opened here at Iridium for three doctors. We applied. You can check with the director of this facility.”

  “But why leave Europa? What was wrong with it?”

  A snort. “Come on. A remote base in the middle of an ice ocean. There are no other people on the moon. It’s extremely dangerous. The environment hostile. An equipment failure of any sort could result in—”

  “Then why go there in the first place?”

  She stumbled over that. “Orders. I’m in the CCF, Tanner.”

  I pointed at Marius. “He’s not. Why did you go?”

  He shrugged. “The concept of finding life, of course. It would be an incredible discovery here in Home System. An
d if it were complex...” He grunted.

  I stepped forward. “Then I’ll ask again. Why leave?”

  He opened his mouth, but hesitated. Then, “Marina said, it was dangerous.”

  Which he would have known before going. They were hiding something. I was sure of it. But still...

  I drew my pistol and leveled it at the others. “Marina, Simon and Sato. Get over into that corner.”

  Gasps everywhere, and even Lawrence stepped toward me. “Tanner, what the hell?”

  “It’s okay,” I muttered to him. “I know what I’m doing.” Then louder, “Captain Lawrence, I want you to call six security officers here immediately.”

  This was now his area, as Commander of CCF Security Division at Iridium. He watched me for a moment before reaching for the communit on a nearby console. “Right away, Tanner.”

  “When they arrive, I want two of them to escort each of these people to their cabins. They’re to gather belongings for a trip. They are only to bring clothes and personal items for hygiene. Make sure they do not pack weapons of any sort.”

  “A trip?” Marina Dinova shouted. “What are you talking about? How is this part of the investigation? You’re here to find Bojdl’s murderer, not kidnap us!”

  Her response intrigued me. Marius, on the other hand, seemed instantly nervous. He clearly did not want to return to the base on Europa. His expression was slack and he couldn’t meet my eyes.

  And as for Sato, he had a look of...was it joy on his face? Was he actually excited about this? “What am I going for, Lieutenant?” he asked.

  “You’re coming to help destroy the micro-bomb in my aorta,” I grated. Or at least to keep me alive until I could find the killer.

  * * *

  It was necessary for Captain Lawrence to stay behind as my contact at Ceres in case I needed more information from Fort Iridium. Generally speaking it was more common to stay near the scene of the murder to continue gathering information and speak with potential witnesses. In this case, however, the connection to Europa fascinated me. Something was going on there that Dinova and Marius were hiding. To solve the murders, I needed to know everything.

  I ordered Lawrence to sweep the clinic, my cabin and Bojdl’s cabin for more micro-bombs so that no one else ended up with an aneurysm.

  Collateral damage, like Shaheen.

  The CCF guards, pistols at the ready, escorted the others to their cabins and then to a jumpship that Lawrence had prepared for me. The three entered with pistols at their backs and small bags over their shoulders. Dinova’s mouth was a thin line. Marius stared at the deck. Sato, on the other hand, still appeared eager for an adventure. It made me shake my head.

  What we were doing was not what I would call an adventure.

  I only had a few days to live, after all.

  The jumpship departed Fort Iridium, and under the smooth power of the gravtrav, which locked onto Jupiter to pull us toward our destination and onto Ceres and the Sun to push us toward Europa, we began the journey.

  We would arrive in under five hours.

  And then the real investigation would finally begin.

  Research Station Europa One

  “The Freezer”

  Location: Europa, Moon of Jupiter; 81º 51' North Latitude 113º 15' West Longitude

  Elevation: 0 Meters Above Ice Level (AIL)

  Personnel: Five Scientist-Doctors

  Mission: Study ocean beneath ice to determine if life exists on Europa

  Modules:

  A: Workplace; Labs; Station Control (Three Levels)

  B: Living

  C: Clinic

  D: Vehicle Berth; Air lock; Repair

  E: Rec Room; Galley; Mess; Library

  F: Air lock; Main Entry from Landing Pad

  Part Two: Wednesday—Three Days Left

  Chapter Four

  Europa was visible within a few hours, but the planet it orbited dwarfed the small moon. Jupiter was absolutely immense, its orange-red-brown hues stretching from nearly one side of the front viewport to the other. The red spot was in view, and I imagined I could see the hurricane-strength winds churning around that gas-liquid atmosphere. I wondered what it would look like from the surface of the ice moon Europa.

  Shaheen would have loved it.

  On the jumpship, my three passengers sat tightlipped and sullen. Dr. Marina Dinova was furious at me for yanking her from her clinic and patients. Simon Marius hadn’t said more than a few words: he was terrified of something. I was curious about it, but needed to speak to him in private to get any real information. And Ed Sato, recognizing the mood on the ship, didn’t say much; he only gazed out the viewport as Jupiter increased in size.

  He had pointed out Europa to me a few minutes earlier. It was a white dot that moved slowly across the face of Jupiter.

  Europa was slightly smaller than Earth’s own moon, about 3,000 kilometers in diameter. It had the highest albedo in the solar system—meaning it was the most reflective body. This, of course, was because of the ice. It was a water moon, but as Marius had mentioned earlier, only the top ten kilometers were ice. Under that was a liquid layer. For centuries scientists had identified the moon as the most likely place in Home System to host life outside of Earth. For this reason, I supposed, this remote outpost and team of scientists had been located here.

  Still, I had some serious questions to ask about that as well.

  “Should we contact the base?” Sato whispered to me up in the control room. There were only two seats there, and he and I had occupied them for the entire journey.

  I shook my head. “I want to surprise them. We’ll come in quietly.”

  “Are you sure the killer is there?”

  I hesitated for a heartbeat. “How much do you know exactly?”

  “Only what I heard in the clinic at Fort Iridium. But I’m smart. I figured a lot out.”

  “Well, I’m hoping the answers are there. If not, we’ll go back to Ceres.”

  “There’s not much time, you know.”

  I rubbed my hand across my chest. It was hard not to think about—probably similar to a terminally ill patient who knew there was something inside tearing him apart. I sighed in frustration.

  The Freezer.

  I stared at the surface of the moon as it grew larger. The gravtrav was slowing us now, reversing the pull of both Jupiter and its moon. We could travel incredibly fast with the drive. Since we could manipulate gravity, we were able to maintain a field in the ship at one gee. But once we’d learned to amplify it, reverse it, control it, our ships could reach speeds of up to a hundred gee. The acceleration was massive, and it shortened distances within planetary systems to a few days at most. Away from planets and stars, however, where the gravitational fields were too slight to provide acceleration, the drive was useless. There, we used a hyperspace drive—cavtrav—which surrounded our ships in a cavity of subspace. In essence, the ship dropped from real space and traveled through the void until it reached another planetary system.

  Europa was crisscrossed with dark lines and areas slightly less white than the majority of the planet. I peered closer as we approached. They were cracks, fractures, ridges. It would seem that the ice was not entirely stable, and that it sheared and broke apart for some reason.

  I frowned. “This base is located on an unstable surface.”

  “It seems dangerous.”

  “I wonder if there’s any land at all it could be located on.”

  Sato shook his head as he continued to study the vista before him: the white surface of the moon with the majestic backdrop of Jupiter and a sliver of space on either side. It was beautiful. If it hadn’t been for my condition, I might have actually enjoyed it.

  “What can we try with this explosive?” I murmured.

 
A pause. And then, “We have a lot of options, Tanner. It’s a machine, remember. And we can beat machines.”

  I grunted at that.

  “We can try to remotely access it, for one. That’s what I’ll do first.”

  “You think we can control it?”

  “I think whoever built it has a way to deactivate it, yes.” He gestured at the moon. “Maybe the solution is down there.”

  “What else?”

  “We can operate.”

  “But—”

  He held up his hand. “Worst case.” He hesitated for a moment. “We can also use an electromagnetic pulse. It’ll fuse any circuits too close together, which this machine most definitely has. That is almost a guaranteed method to kill it.”

  “Unless it’s shielded.”

  He didn’t say anything to that.

  Below us it was now completely white. Soon a cluster of domes and connected tunnels appeared on the horizon. They were located next to a ridge of ice about fifty meters high that extended as far as we could see.

  “Eighty-one north, one-thirteen west,” Sato muttered. The latitude and longitude.

  On the far side of the structures was an area in the ice that someone had polished and surrounded with lights. It was roughly twenty meters across by ten meters wide. To the east was a tower with a dish atop it—the facility’s communications array.

  I touched the controls, switching off the autopilot. I maneuvered the jumpship slowly over the landing pad and brought it to the surface gently.

  The gravtrav powered down.

  Sato turned to me with his usual smile.

  “This isn’t going to be fun,” I growled. I turned to the short passageway that led into the communal seating area directly behind the control room. Dinova and Marius watched me anxiously. “It’s time.”

  * * *

  Our jumpship’s ramp lowered and the four of us marched down the metal grate. We were in our vacsuits now, which were fabric-thin thanks to nano manufacturing. The backpacks were a mere inch thick and occupied a very small space between the shoulder blades. But the suits were not effective for long periods outside; people generally used this type for quick transfers between pressurized ships and facilities.