The Freezer Read online

  As I stepped off the ramp and onto the ice, I realized they were not going to be useful on this moon at all.

  At our feet, the ice was incredibly slippery. In fact, mist was visible rising from below the soles of my boots.

  The heat from our suits was sublimating the ice to vapor.

  “Pressure’s low here and it’s skipping the water phase,” Marius mumbled.

  I glanced at him, surprised. Then I realized. Of course—he’d lived here six months ago. He knew all about the conditions. “How do you—”

  “Don’t try to walk quickly, you’ll slip on the ice. We’re also absorbing a tremendous amount of radiation from Jupiter. We need to get inside soon. Outside like this, we’d take in 550 rem a day, enough to make us ill and cause death.”

  I could feel the cold penetrating the suit already. My heater had kicked in instantly to compensate, but still, my feet were growing numb and I could barely feel my toes. And it had happened damned fast.

  “There is a slight atmosphere,” Marius said, “and the ice supercools it.” He gestured in front of us. “Look.”

  I peered closely and saw what he was referring to. Tiny particles glinted in the dim light from Jupiter.

  “Ice crystals.”

  I felt another chill, though this time not from the cold.

  My parents were in my thoughts, as was another icy scenario, eerily similar to this one.

  I shoved the thoughts aside in an instant, shocked that they had come to me now. Couldn’t let that bother me at this particular moment in time.

  Above us, Jupiter’s enormity blotted out the stars behind. Only a sliver of the massive planet was in view—Europa was moving out from the dark side—but lightning was flashing across the face of the gas giant in rapid strobes, clearly showing the planet’s presence as it loomed over us. Some of the bolts were thousands of kilometers long and occurred every ten seconds or so. The smaller ones seemed to occur continuously. It was a light show over the icy surface of Europa, which reflected the largest of the flashes.

  Incredible.

  To the right was the massive ice ridge. Tremendous forces had crushed the ice together into huge blocks and towers, some of them tens of meters high. To the left, flat, featureless ice. Black horizon on both sides. Jupiter’s light show above.

  Eerie as hell.

  As hell frozen over, I thought.

  Another dangerous environment.

  Another confined location.

  Another killer.

  I shuddered. “Let’s get inside.”

  * * *

  Next to the landing pad was a small dome. Above the hatch a sign identified it as Module F. Once inside, the four of us happily stripped off our vacsuits and hung them on hooks in an empty locker at the rear of the chamber. Hopefully we wouldn’t have to wear those again until we left; I also hoped that there were additional vacsuits here, more appropriate for the environment.

  I noted Marina rubbing her feet and grimacing, and I shook my head. Less than two minutes out there, and our flesh had nearly frozen.

  Smoothing my black CCF uniform and straightening the pistol at my side, I marched to another hatch in the domed chamber. It led to the travel tube toward the workplace and labs. A schematic next to the hatch even pointed out our location.

  I turned to the others. Dinova was also in the CCF uniform, and our two civilians Marius and Sato were in gray jumpsuits. Marina had a holster on her thigh—a pistol was part of the uniform—but I had removed the weapon from her in the clinic at Ceres.

  “How can you be sure the answer is here?” Sato asked.

  I frowned. “A hunch.” Plus, I added silently, there was something Dinova and Marius weren’t telling me. At the very least, this should pull it from them.

  I had also learned long ago to trust my gut. My instructors at the academy had noticed it early on. It was why they had assigned me to Homicide Section. I had a knack for interpreting body language, mannerisms, language and tone. A human lie detector, some had said. I just thought it a skill that I had picked up somewhere, perhaps as a kid growing up without parents. A loner who learned to avoid trouble when it was coming straight for him. Someone who could tell what people were going to do. It was a defense mechanism perhaps.

  But I was also someone who could deal with trouble when it found him. It’s why I was still hunting killers after twelve years. I’d captured many of them after violent confrontations. The Torcher was a famous capture, and we had fought for long minutes on board his jumpship before I finally subdued him. I still had the scar on my thigh from where he had burned me.

  The travel tube connected Module F with A. It was over fifty meters long and suspended above the ice. I assumed it couldn’t touch the surface because it would melt into it. Crack it perhaps. Still, the domes seemed to sit on it just fine. I wondered how.

  “Why’s the tube so long?” Sato asked.

  “In case a ship crashes or explodes on landing. You don’t want it near the inhabited modules.”

  We marched along the tube without speaking further. The ceiling was curved, its apex about eight feet above the deck, which was steel grating. It clanged with each step. The walls were polished steel, but every ten feet or so there was a viewport another ten feet long. The outside scenery made me shake my head. Still, I had seen other dangerous locations in my investigations. Home System was full of them.

  I noticed something else very quickly. I was still shivering from being out in the cold, and had attributed my continuing state to that experience. However, I was not warming up very quickly. The others were in a similar condition. Our breath was even condensing.

  Suddenly the hatch at the end of the travel tube opened and a tall man in a lab coat appeared. He was in his sixties with gray hair and a matching moustache. He had broad shoulders and seemed very fit for his age. He held a large reader under his right arm, and his left hand rested on a control panel just inside the hatch.

  He was considering whether or not to seal the hatch with us inside the tube.

  Lock us in there.

  It was a natural response, I figured. He didn’t know who we were; we hadn’t contacted anyone before entering. For all he knew we could be pirates of some sort.

  “It’s Francis Lefave,” Dinova hissed at me. “He’s the director of the project. Lieutenant commander. Not a nice guy, as you’ll find.”

  I turned from her and said in a loud voice, “Lieutenant Kyle Tanner, CCF.”

  Lefave cocked his head. “What are you doing here?” His voice was clear and strong.

  “I’m a homicide investigator. I’m on a case.”

  He snorted. “No one has died here, I assure you.” And then he noticed my companions. “Marina. Simon.” He finally lowered his hand from the hatch controls. “What’s going on?”

  I watched the exchange closely. It wasn’t a warm welcome. They had worked together closely for a year. Something had transpired between them.

  “Someone killed Marek,” Dr. Dinova said after a heartbeat. “Inspector Tanner brought us here. He thinks the answer has to do with The Freezer.”

  “Really.” His voice was cold. “You think someone here did it.”

  “I’m here to gather information.” I gestured at the others. “These two were reluctant to talk, so I brought them with me.”

  A snort. “And who’s that?”

  “Ed Sato. Computer programmer.”

  “Why are you here?”

  Sato glanced at me, unsure of what I wanted him to say. I shrugged.

  “I’m here to save his life,” Sato said with a finger in my direction.

  Lefave frowned.

  “It’s a long story,” I added.

  * * *

  The main dome was much larger than the air-lock module had been and consisted
of three levels. The center had a steep ladder that led to the upper decks. The bottom level—and the largest—was clearly a workspace. Short dividing walls separated it into many different areas, each containing monitors, consoles, desks and tables. The deck above contained biological labs, containment modules, microscopes, test tubes, glassware. A typical area to study specimens from the water layer below the ice. And the upper level, the smallest, was the control room for the entire facility. Life support, environmental, communications.

  Lefave gave us a quick tour and gestured back to the main level. “Let’s go to Module E. That’s our recreation area and where the other four are. You can meet them and then we’ll...” He trailed off. “Get to business, I guess. Whatever it is.”

  I studied the man as he led us around Module A and through the tube to Module E. He had quick, jerky movements, but he was not clumsy. He was sure of himself and spoke with a clear, strong voice. His words came out almost in sharp growls and snaps. He was larger than me—and I was six feet and about two hundred pounds—but there was no fat on him whatsoever.

  There was a hatch at the entrance and exit to each travel tube. To contain air pressure, as with ships and other facilities. There were a lot of yellow stenciled warnings on the bulkheads, bare lights in the ceiling and decks, and labels for every area of the base denoting function and proper usage. Utilitarian and sparse.

  “How is this facility resting on the surface?” I asked.

  Lefave glanced at me. “You noticed the single greatest problem of the environment.”

  “Sinking into the ice.”

  “Yes.” A shrug. “It’s simple. We refrigerate the bottom skin of The Freezer. Its temperature matches the ice, negative seventy-five Celsius at this pressure. We don’t sink downward. An easy solution.”

  We continued through the tube and I noticed Dinova and Marius walking side by side behind me. They were whispering to one another and glancing toward me every few seconds.

  “Save it,” I snapped. “We’re going to have a good discussion in just a few minutes. Until then, silence.”

  Dinova glared at me and even Marius now seemed angry. It was a new emotion from him. Lefave watched the exchange, curious.

  I ignored him.

  * * *

  We stepped through a hatch and heard the sound of ping pong. Across the level, on the other side of the dome, two people were involved in a heated match. Another two sat nearby watching a holo vid—it seemed like a news broadcast beamed from Earth.

  Lefave cleared his throat and the others looked at us instantly.

  The ping-pong ball fell to the deck and rolled away slowly. The sound echoed around us for several seconds. Someone muted the vid.

  No one said a thing.

  Finally, Lefave broke the silence. “We have visitors.”

  Chapter Five

  The CCF Engineering Corps had built The Freezer in 2400 AD. They had constructed it in pieces in Earth orbit, transported the components to Europa and assembled it on the ice. There had been eight original crew; the three who had left for Ceres had worked there during the latter half of 2400 and all of 2401. Then they had worked for half a year at Fort Iridium, before Bojdl’s murder.

  The CCF did not replace the three, so there were now five people at The Freezer. Lefave was the director. I had reviewed the CCF’s files on the crew, so I knew a small amount about each person, but I had not had time to go over the records in detail. Yet.

  “Everyone, over here, right now.” My order was loud and forceful. No alternatives.

  They approached with narrowed eyes, yet curiosity was clear on their features. All four wore CCF uniforms. Two men and two women.

  Lieutenant Janice Snow, the facility’s chief physician, was an expert in human anatomy. She was in her mid-thirties and had long blond hair, which she wore tied back, and she was extremely attractive. There was a hard edge to her features, however, which betrayed her good looks. I immediately sensed that something was off about her. It was the way she held herself, the way she watched me. She was instantly suspicious of my presence, which I expected I guess, but we were both in the CCF, and she knew that military regulations, roles and assignments took precedence over all else.

  Private First Class Aoki Tali, a lab technician, was a beautiful Asian in her twenties. Despite her expression, I sensed that she might be more friendly than either Snow or Lefave. She was not an officer and therefore would feel compelled to cooperate with me fully. Not that the others wouldn’t, but in the military, the chain of command was supreme. If she did not answer my questions quickly and honestly, it meant she could very well be the guilty party. Instructors and commanders had drilled respect for authority and the military into her relentlessly, as with all other NOMs, people considered Not Officer Material.

  Lieutenant Robert Cray was another doctor looking for alien life on this ball of ice. He specialized in genetics and apparently possessed great knowledge of the human genome. He glared a lot and answered me with curt, single words. We were the same rank, but he must have been aware that during a homicide investigation I was at the top of the chain. If he didn’t submit soon, I’d have to put him in his place. Cray was in his early thirties with gaunt features, black hair and dark eyebrows.

  Last was another NOM, a lance corporal, Lenn Dyson. With short hair that he was losing quickly despite his young age, he had a rather pointed nose and a pronounced Adam’s apple. He didn’t have much to say to me either, and his hostility was clear.

  The introductions took ten minutes. I soaked everything in and studied everybody intently, even when they weren’t speaking. We sat at a cluster of metal chairs near the ping-pong table. A viewport nearby showed the stark white landscape and jet-black space at the horizon. The newcomers and I shivered uncomfortably in the cold. Apparently it was the warmest they could make the station—otherwise the underside of The Freezer would begin to melt the ice beneath. So this was the working temperature; we were stuck with it.

  In that dome with me were the three newcomers and five permanent residents. From Ceres, Dr. Dinova, Dr. Marius and Ed Sato. From Europa were Director Lefave, Dr. Snow, Dr. Cray, the technician Tali, and Lance Corporal Dyson.

  And they had the information that I needed to solve two murders.

  The trick in my profession was coaxing it out of someone, or forcing it out, if necessary.

  “Why are you here?” Janice Snow asked. Her tone did not match her beauty.

  “Someone murdered your former coworker, along with another woman.”

  Snow looked at the others. “You must be referring to Bojdl then, since he’s the only former coworker not here.” She was quick. She was also gazing at Sato, wondering who he was and what he was doing there.

  “And you think the killer is here?” Cray asked with an edge to his tone.

  “I’m following leads. Who knows what will turn up?”

  The others frowned at this and stared at me blankly.

  I continued, “I won’t interrupt your work.” Still more silence. “Have you discovered anything yet?”

  “We’re constantly making important discoveries.”

  “Life?”

  Cray shook his head.

  “I see.” I watched him for a long moment. He simply stared back. Meanwhile, beside me, Dinova and Marius were silent and still. “Are you feeling okay?” I asked them.

  “What do you mean?” Marius answered.

  “Are you happy to be back?”

  “You know I’m not.”

  “Why?”

  He hesitated. “I find it dangerous here.”

  “The environment?”

  “Of course. You experienced it just a few minutes ago. And it’s hardly pleasant here.” He was shivering immensely.

  “And you?” I asked Dinova.

  “I
left for a reason,” she answered in an even tone. She was glaring at Lefave, and he right back at her. “I am not happy to be here.”

  “Let’s talk about why the three of you left in the first place.”

  Marius snapped a look at me. “What? Are you serious? Is that—”

  “Why we came here, yes. You wouldn’t answer me on Ceres. Now here we are. I expect an answer.” My tone was cold and he withered under my glare. “I could have locked you up there. Beat it out of you. Executed you for killing Bojdl if I wanted. But instead I gave you a second chance.”

  During the exchange Dinova grew more and more uncomfortable. It was obvious in the way she sat. Her eyes were icy cold. I had hit a nerve.

  I continued. “You can’t mess with the CCF, Marius. Bojdl was an officer. Someone killed him. I’m going to drill that information out of the murderer.”

  “It wasn’t me.” His voice was weak, beaten.

  And then she intervened.

  “You pathetic weasel!”

  I turned to Dr. Dinova. “You have something to say?”

  Her face was red. “How dare you attack him under the guise of doing good! You’re part of the CCF! You are a tyrant, a villain!”

  That made me pause. “You’re an officer in the CCF too, Doctor. At least, you wear the uniform and the pistol.” I gestured at the badge on her sleeve. “The warship and galaxy.”

  She glanced down. “I do, but I don’t get any pleasure from it, I can assure you.”

  I studied the faces of the people around me. The Europan personnel were shaking their heads at her. Marius, on the other hand, stared at the deck. And then I understood.

  “You’re a dissident,” I whispered.

  * * *

  “Yes,” she snapped. “And proud of it!”

  I frowned. Dissidents were common in the Confederacy, but most kept their feelings to themselves. All too often people who didn’t stay quiet disappeared and were never seen or heard from again. Boots in the night, hatches forced open, screams in the dark. Whispers and rumors the next day...and yet no one ever pursued the issue.