Rosetta (Jim Meade: Martian P.I)

by RJ Johnson

  They were surrounded by a forest filled with towering pine trees, shrubs and greenery that Meade had thought died off long ago during the Last War. Birds called to each other from the branches as Meade watched squirrels and various other kinds of animal life dart away from the intruding human beings. Meade was impressed. If there was one thing the Consortium did right, it was their arboretums.

  The nuclear winter that has set in after the dust up between Consortium and Coalition forces had done quite a number on the environment back home virtually destroying every natural environment left, but there were still vast sections of protected Homeworld forests that remained viable. People were not allowed inside to view them however, for fear of destroying the delicate ecosystem, under penalty of death. Meade was unsure if there was any space as diverse as Koschei's private reserve. Looking above him, Meade gasped in wonder as he saw the most beautiful star filled sky he'd ever seen. A brilliant shining jewel that could only be Jupiter hung over the horizon. The view was so clear, Meade could swear he could see the Red Spot, but dismissed that as just a trick of his eyes. A Hummingbird fluttered by their group and Emeline stared at it wide-eyed as it hovered over several flowers.

  "This is incredible." She gushed and Meade who wasn't prone to exaggeration agreed.

  A shot rang out and Meade instinctively went for his grandfather's FN Five-Seven before remembering that he had left it packed securely in his luggage. He wasn't used to hearing shots fired unless he was the one who did it. Most people in the Consortium weren't allowed weapons, hell, even in the Coalition old fashion guns like the one handed down to him by his grandfather were rare as most citizens in the Coalition depended on their ArmBars for personal protection. However, Meade had grown up with the handgun hanging from his holster and always felt better when he felt its heavy weight hanging underneath his arm.

  From the trees, a figure emerged carrying a 30.06 rifle over one shoulder and a deer carcass on the other. Meade recognized the man instantly from the briefing papers given to him by Palmetto. This was Dimitri Koschei, the Russian Trillionaire who owned and operated Rosetta for the Consortium. He was taller than he appeared on the hologram and there were more wrinkles, but it was the same man.

  "I've always felt that fresh meat always tastes better when you kill it yourself." Koschei said dumping the deer corpse in front of them. "You must be the venerable James Meade." The Russian offered his hand. "Dimitri Koschei."

  Meade took his hand and shook it. "First time I've seen anyone offer me a handshake here on Rosetta."

  Koschei laughed, a sharp sound that echoed through the forest. "Most of our workers here on Rosetta are still inured to the Consortium ways I'm afraid. They haven't had the occasion to meet too many Coalition people such as yourself."

  "I'm not Coalition." Meade said firmly. "Never saw myself pledging fealty to anyone but myself."

  "An honest man then." Koschei said with a grin. Meade couldn't help but like the man, but he kept his guard up, Koschei was still high on his list of suspects. "Rare to find around these parts."

  "Rarer still in a Consortium man if I'm being honest." Meade replied quickly.

  "You haven't had met me then." Koschei replied agreeably. "I pride myself on honesty for all, Consortium or Coalition. It's probably why they've allowed me to stay in business for so long." Koschei said, flashing his toothy grin once again. "Tell me Mr. Meade, what do you think of our little colony?"

  Meade looked around the forest. "Lot more greenery than I'm used to, but I'll allow it looks like you've got quite the operation running here."

  "You're from Mars? Yes?" Koschei leaned down and picked up the deer carcass hoisting it over his shoulder. "I imagine the red planet doesn't offer anything quite as lush as Rosetta's bio-dome. I had several hundred tons of topsoil shipped here from the Homeworld." Koschei was clearly proud of his creation and wanted to brag about it to some outsiders. "Construction took longer than anything else we did here on Rosetta, but it was worth it."

  "How do you get sunlight to the plants?" Emeline asked him.

  Koschei turned and a broad smile spread across his face. "You must be Ms. Hunan. I've heard so much about you and my dear, your beauty has clearly been undersold." Koschei remarked bowing towards her, taking her hand. She tittered and blushed. Koschei rose and pointed at the top of the biodome lid. "The dome above us is coated with a special laminate that collects what little sunlight we get this far away from the sun, and distributes the energy through a focused lamp that's designed to imitate the sun as it would appear on the Homeworld." He chuckled. "Occasionally, I’m even able to create our very own rainstorms in here."

  "Brilliant." Not much impressed Emeline, but she was dazzled by forest.

  "We've got a decent hydro-farm back home which provides us with plenty of fruit and veggies, but there's nothing like this." Meade couldn't hide how impressed he was. The forest stretched on for acres.

  "Perhaps you'd be interested in touring our farm." Koschei said and pointed off in the distance. "I had my men set up a working dairy and vegetable farm using the same sort of techniques our forefathers used in the 20th century."

  "Fresh milk?" Emeline asked, her eyes wide in wonder. "Soy is the closest we ever get on Mars."

  "As fresh as anything you'd taste." Koschei boasted. "There's also corn, and as you can see," he hefted the deer carcass on his shoulders, "fresh meat. We leave the SUMP for our workers who reside in downtown. Honored guests on the other hand..."

  Emeline tugged at Meade's jacket. "Did you hear that? He called you honorable."

  "Give him time to get to know me," Meade said with a wry grin.

  "You are of course invited to tonight's feast." Koschei added. "I have the very best chef in the system. I made sure of that."

  Meade's mouth watered as he thought of tasting fresh meat for the first time in years. "I believe we may have to take you up on that invitation Mr. Koschei."

  "Dimitri please." Koschei insisted. "From all reports, I was told your trip here was less than comfortable and I simply cannot have that."

  "Let's just say the Consortium engineering we've seen so far hasn't been quite up the standards you've got here on Rosetta."

  "We shall have to rectify that then." Koschei said. "It is settled. Please come to my quarters at eight bells and we shall break bread."

  "That sounds agreeable." Meade replied hopeful that their new found friendship would make his next question less awkward for the powerful man standing next to them. "The only thing is, we're here with Sinjakama's son and from what I've gathered, he ain't exactly a big fan of yours."

  Koschei's face fell and he nodded sympathetically. "I'm afraid Doctor Sinjakama blames me for his father's death. It is unfortunate that his father tragically died here, but there was nothing we could do for the man. He gave us no indication that he had such thoughts."

  "What was his job here anyway?" Meade asked. "I'm a bit confused why you would want such a big player like Sanjay Sinjakama around here. Seems to me you could find cheaper help to get this place up and running and certified."

  "As you've already discovered for yourself Mr. Meade, you get what you pay for with cheap labor in the Consortium." Koschei replied. "When I initially set out to build Rosetta I wanted to ensure that there would be no major hiccups in its construction. We have a safety record unmatched across the system. Because of the skills of fine Consortium Engineers such as Doctor Sinjakama’s father, the loss of life during construction has been minimal fortunately."

  "So he was the best man for the job?" Meade quizzed. "What was he doing exactly?"

  Koschei bobbed his head from side to side. "A little of this, a little of that. He was directly responsible for designing the overall colony and the installation of the necessary machinery to support life out here. He did some amazing work harvesting the asteroid's natural resources to build a paradise beyond all others."

  "Overall supervisor then." Meade said.

  "You could say that. He had a few sp
ecial projects that he was working on with me. Proprietary things that I'm afraid I can't disclose to you, you understand of course."

  "Of course." Meade said. He kept Suresh's admonition of Omar in the back of his mind. He'd play that card when he needed to.

  "But, for all indications, he was happy here and scheduled to return to the Homeworld when his projects were scheduled to be completed next month. It is perplexing, to say the least, that he ended up dead here, so close to seeing his finest work completed."

  "So Rosetta is pretty much done then?" Emeline asked.

  "There are a few odds and ends and of course his special project still to be completed, but yes, I'm sure you're aware of the impact Rosetta is already making on the system." He grinned and for the first time, Meade saw behind the smile. He cleared his throat and continued.

  "Rosetta is the crowning achievement of the Consortium and signifies how our nation will rise out of the dust and clatter of the Last War and move our people into a bright and prosperous era."

  "Propaganda aside, I will admit Rosetta is impressive." Meade said. "But, if what you say is true, and Sinjakama was nothing but smiles and ready to head home, there should be no reason for a suicide."

  "We are of course still operating on the assumption that whatever happened to the good Doctor was an accident.”

  “I saw the video Koschei.” Meade said, his voice taking a hard turn. No sense in letting Koschei believe he could get away with lying to him. “He threw himself over the edge and that was that.”

  “An accident, or suicide, who can say what lies in a man's heart?" Koschei shrugged. "We all wear masks to hide our true selves from each other. The man was clearly in a great deal of pain. His son now has to bear that burden, which is why you are here investigating something that was settled amongst our security personnel hours after he died." He hoisted the deer carcass off the ground, "Now if you will excuse me, I have to have my men dress my kill and have it prepared in time for our dinner tonight." He began walking off towards a path that led to an enormous house sitting on top of a hill overlooking the vast forest that was improbably planted on the asteroid 500 million kilometers from the Homeworld.

  "Don't forget Mr. Meade, eight bells sharp!"

  Meade watched Koschei retreat to his ranch house and he turned to Emeline. "What do you think?"

  "I think he knows more than he's letting on, and isn't as stable as he'd like us to believe." She warned. "I think we'll learn more at dinner."

  "What about you Suresh? Amla?" The pair had remained out of sight, but had caught every bit of the conversation and only emerged after Koschei had retreated towards his ranch house.

  The pair were both caught off guard by Meade's query. "It is not for us to comment on an upper caste's behavior." Suresh said hesitantly.

  Meade waved him off. "Remember what I told you. Far as I'm concerned, you're just as much a Runabout as I am right now. What did you think?"

  Amla spoke up, her voice still small, but confident. "I believe he truly knows what happened to Master Sinjakama but is afraid what he knows will hurt his standing with Consortium officials back on the Homeworld."

  "I believe you're right Amla." Meade agreed. "And I think dinner tonight will be the real test. We'll see how he deals with Sinjakama in person."

  "Hey, dinner and a show, there are worse things in the world." Emeline added. Meade chuckled and hoped she was right. He could use some entertainment.

  Chapter Thirteen

  "You met with Koschei without me?" Sinjakama's voice thundered through his quarters and Meade winced. He'd never seen anyone get this angry before. "How dare you, you impertinent fool!"

  "You hired me to investigate. Investigating means talking to suspects." Meade replied calmly. He wouldn't let Sinjakama get to him. "Koschei is high on my list of suspects."

  "It is unthinkable!" Sinjakama screamed, his face beet red. "You have usurped my authority and I have lost face with Koschei now. He believes you to be in charge."

  "Aren't I?" Meade countered. "I am still in charge of the investigation aren't I?"

  Sinjakama's eyes narrowed and his voice dropped to a cold fury. "You are my employee and as such your fealty to me is..."

  "Look, I know you Consortium types have your own way of doing things what with your different levels and whatnot," Meade couldn't help but get angry now. "I'm just doing my goddamn job and if you allow protocol get in the way of that, I'll likely never find your father's killer."

  Sinjakama calmed a bit on hearing this as he raised an eyebrow, "You believe my father was murdered then?"

  "You hired me to find that out. I don't know yet. But, I think the coincidences are beginning to add up, and in my world, that means something hinky is going on." Meade said. "There are too many things wrong with the scene where your father was found."

  "Such as?" The fury was gone from his voice, but Meade could tell he was still pissed.

  "Such as, your father shouldn't have had a corpse left if he really had jumped or fallen from where he did." Meade frowned. "In fact, it's strange they even tried to push the suicide and accident angle at all. Anyone who knows anything about basic physics would know your father's body would have exploded on impact if he truly did fall from the top of the Pit."

  "Anything else?"

  "Your father's quarters were stripped bare. There was nothing, not even a picture of you or your mother decorating the place, but that doesn't mean anything. Security could have just seized everything and stored it somewhere, but that wouldn't explain this." Meade withdrew the container of Osmium from his jacket. "Worth a pretty penny. No reason for them to leave it behind. IF they knew it was there."

  Sinjakama grabbed it from Meade and examined it. "Where did you find this?"

  "It was hiding in a false bottom of a dresser in your father's quarters." Meade replied. "Your inheritance?"

  Sinjakama snorted. "I hardly think a pittance like this was stashed away for any particular reason."

  "That Osmium is worth more than just a pittance." Meade retorted. "I've seen men kill for a lot less."

  "Please." Sinjakama sniffed. He casually tossed the Osmium back to Meade. "If someone wanted to kill my father, his accounts would have been hacked and drained, or at least an attempt made. Much more money there to be had."

  "How much more?" Meade asked.

  "Our family is one of the richest in the Consortium. How do you think I was able to build the Garuda for my research?" Sinjakama sat down at his desk. "Money isn't why my father was killed. We have been monitoring his accounts for the last week and a half. If someone had acquired the encryption key to his accounts, we would have been able to trace the perpetrator by now."

  "You're not understanding. You may live in a world where millions and billions are change found in your couch, but 100,000 credits isn't anything to sneeze at, especially by someone who barely scrapes by on the SUMP and water rations they're allowed on Rosetta." Meade countered.

  "Do we need to have another demonstration of a Consortium citizen's loyalty?" Sinjakama moaned. "Every Consortium citizen is installed with a compliance chip. Even the thought of stealing would cause them blinding pain."

  Meade was shocked. He'd heard rumors of the compliance chips, but he'd always dismissed them as Coalition propaganda.

  "Your people really do that?" Meade gasped in surprise. "That's barbaric."

  "Barbaric is stealing from your betters." Sinjakama replied dismissively. "It's a simple subdural implant on an infant's prefrontal cortex. Really, it's no more barbaric than your people's tradition of male circumcision."

  "I think controlling a man's actions through pain is a bit different." Meade exclaimed. "Besides, we're not here to debate the differences in our respective cultures."

  "You're right." Sinjakama replied. "So perhaps you'll take me at my word when I say that it is impossible for any person to steal from my father and this discovery of Osmium is inconsequential."

  "Fair enough." Meade mused. "But then,
if it does represent such a pittance as you say, why was it hidden?"

  Sinjakama frowned. This he didn't have an answer for.

  "There's a lot that doesn't add up about this case Sinjakama." Meade said to his boss. "I believe you when you say he was murdered, but I'm running out of motivations for people to have killed him for."

  "Then I suppose you'll just have to work harder." Sinjakama replied.

  Meade shook his head and turned for the door. "Koschei invited us to dinner at his compound on the upper deck. I'd like for you to come to help me get a read on the man."

  Sinjakama sniffed and shook his head. "It is not in my interest to meet with the man at this point after you have usurped my position."

  "To hell with your honor." Meade snarled. It was his turn to get angry. "I'll allow the man doesn't seem capable of murder, but in my experience anyone who gets to that level of wealth has made more than one enemy disappear in his past. Besides, I have reason to believe he knows more than he's telling and with you around, I'll be able to get a better read on the man."