The dock was crowded with thousands of V5 residents all seeking departure from the orbiter. "Look at them all," she snorted, "crowding around here like cockroaches. It's completely repugnant."
"I do love your bag," said Maggerty.
"Oh this old thing," Meer snorted. "It was very expensive when I bought it, but sometimes you just have to buy nice things."
"You know this is where those awful traders found Yao Huizhong?" Maggerty asked.
Meer wrinkled her nose. "What, here?"
"Well, somewhere in this dock."
Meer scoffed as she regarded the bare concrete beneath her feet then gave a tut. "Yes, a place like this - it would be."
She stood on her tiptoes, craning her neck to look over to the end of the line. "I'm sorry dear, but this is completely and utterly ridiculous." Meer left the line and marched to a customs barrier.
"I demand to buy a ticket to Lunar," she said, glowering at a customs agent.
A guard to the agent's right looked up and considered her for a moment. "You and everyone else in this queue, Madam," she said. "Please take your place back in line."
Meer lifted her chin and looked down her nose at the guard. "I can pay," she said.
The guard sighed. "You can pay? So can everyone else in this queue. Please take your place back in the line or I will have to call one of my colleagues to escort you away."
"How dare you?" Meer opened her eyes wide. "Do you have any idea who I am?"
"No," the guard shrugged. "But I'm sure you're going to tell me."
Meer sniffed, eyeing the guard for several seconds. "Well, you wouldn't."
She turned to a short man who had just purchased a ticket. "Good Sir, how much was your passage?"
The man blinked and looked down at his ticket with a confused expression.
"Well?" Meer snapped.
"Erm--," he hesitated, "Fourteen thousand Sols. If you'll excuse me."
Meer blocked him with a raised hand. "Fourteen thousand? That's ridiculous." Meer shook her head. "I will give you thirty," she said. "And that's final."
"Thirty thousand?" The man looked down at his ticket and then back to Meer. "Deal."
The pair made the trade, then Meer called out to Maggerty. "Maggerty dear. I'm okay now, I have a ticket."
Meer strode to the boarding platform as the ticket booths closed and guards swarmed around the barriers behind her.
# # #
Chao-xing: The Occulto, Jupiter region
03/04/6,542, 03:13 (IST)
Eyes pulsing and neck strained, Chao-xing worked through thousands of documents, tracing the pattern of the Yao's development back through time. The most recent files centred around gene recoding, meme splicing, consciousness and memory transfers. Older files detailed biographies and cloning data going back thousands of years. Wading through the redundant code and archaic language, she noted the advances in technology and knowledge. The older files were written in an early dialect that required the patching of different translation ciphers to read.
"This is fucking tedious," she said, rotating the stiffness from her shoulders. The process would have been much quicker had she accessed the archive using Yao implants instead of one the Purdah's open source hacks.
"This is why we need to make this archive available to everyone," Armand said from behind his own terminal.
"I'm not sure if this is correct, but I'm getting a lot of fragments about the slip in some of the older files," she said. "The Lunar Band is a relatively new phenomenon--."
She opened document and scrolled through a series of translation patches until the words made sense.
"Look at this," she said, highlighting a paragraph of text on the screen. Her eyes remained fixed on the display as Armand rose from his terminal to view her display.
"What am I looking at?"
"Have you ever heard of Earth?"
There was a long silence. She turned to Armand. His expression was blank. "No," he said.
The silence hung between them as Chao-xing turned back to scan through the archive.
"The trouble is with these files is they rely on a significant amount of assumed knowledge," she said, massaging her temples. "Take this." She highlighted a line of text.
"As the Earth's magma core was ejected, the magnetic and gravitational shifts caused instability in the crust and mantle," Armand read aloud.
"What the fuck are magma cores?"
"What if Earth was a planet? My father used to tell me stories about people all living on one planet. He said it explained why there were no planets without domes - we couldn't have evolved on hostile planets like Mars or Lunar."
She pulled her eyes away from the screen. "Fuck, it makes sense. It all makes sense. The Lunar Band must have been a planet. This must be the slip."
Armand's brow creased as he took in a sharp breath. "If this is true, then we need to know for sure."
"How?"
"We go to the Lunar Band ourselves and investigate. If the Lunar Band is a natural phenomenon, then it's likely to have similar characteristics to the Martian Band. But if we find evidence of something manmade, then we'll know for sure."
Chao-xing swallowed. "Okay," she said, "let's go."
# # #
Akira: Gustav's Bar, Insularum 3, Lunar
12/06/6,544, 21:29 (IST)
Akira wore a grey jacket as she nursed a glass of bitter cider in a dark corner of Gustav's bar. It wasn't a drink she was keen on, but it was cheap, and cheap was hard to find in Insularum.
A new contact from the Boeki had left her a message to meet, so Akira suggested Gustav's. The bar was low-rent enough for it not be frequented by the Lunar elite, but quiet enough not to attract criminals or security officers. Though she found its chairs uncomfortable, its decor of wood-effect panelling and glittering abstract light displays unbearable, and the name above the door dubious, Akira felt at ease.
Sipping her cider, Akira watched as Boeki Representative Wynn Efans entered the bar. He stood for a moment surveying the room before striding over.
"Akira, isn't it?" he said, offering a hand.
Remaining seated, Akira nodded.
"Can I get you a drink?" he asked.
Akira glanced down at her glass, two-thirds full. "I'll have another measure of cider, please." She pushed her spectacles up her nose and sipped her cider while Wynn ordered the drinks.
With drinks in hand, Wynn sat opposite Akira. The table was round and black. Its surface was sticky against Akira's left elbow.
"I've not been here before," Wynn said as he looked around the bar. "Interesting choice."
"What the fuck is going on with the Secretary?" Akira asked.
"You don't mess about do you?" Wynn laughed. "To be honest, I was hoping you'd have some insights on that front."
Akira leaned back in her seat, then took a large gulp of cider. "Honestly, you want my opinion? This whole thing - this stuff with the Yao, the weapons vote, the Kurosawa deal - it's all very--," Akira paused, "--convenient."
"Convenient is one way of putting it," said Wynn.
Akira gulped the final mouthful from her cider. She turned, placed the glass on the next table, then turned back to pick up her new drink.
"I know I can trust you," Wynn said with a hesitant tone. "This is all - all of this - it's completely between us - not for publication. This meeting never happened."
"Of course." Akira smiled, raising her glass.
"At first I was just outraged that Ozu would be so opportunistic. But - and this is the big but - the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced there's got to be a link between the Yao deaths and this whole thing."
Akira raised her eyebrows - a gesture she'd practised over many years. "Do you really believe that?"
"That it's convenient?" Wynn shrugged. "Sure, how could anyone with a grain of sense not believe that?"
"No, I mean the link. Is there a direct link between Ozu and the murders?"
"Directly?" A gloomy expression passed
over Wynn's face. "I'm not sure. It's a stretch, but it's a stretch whichever way to look at it: The Purdah doesn't add up; Ozu seems disproportionate--."
Akira leaned forward. "What about Muedin? Tomas was all over this."
"Again, it's a stretch. Perhaps more so than Ozu and the Purdah. The motivation to get rid of the Yao in this way is just--," Wynn exhaled then took a sip from his glass.
"But the vote? That was clearly planned."
Wynn scratched his chin, considering his words for several seconds. "Look, a few years back, the idea of putting forward a similar motion was being floated, mainly by Muedin and Aghoro. The Boeki wanted no part of it, most of the orbiters wanted no part of it, and the Yao certainly wanted no part of it." Wynn took a long sip of his drink, then wiped his mouth with a sleeve. "They knew the vote wouldn't pass, so it was never put forward as a motion." Wynn frowned. "Can you imagine what would happen if an orbiter was breached? You're talking hundreds of deaths minimum, perhaps more."
"I suppose," said Akira. "And what if they landed in the wrong hands?"
"That was our objection then - it's our objection today."
"So the timing of the vote could be opportunism, nothing more?"
"That's what I'm saying," said Wynn. "I'm not sure if that's what I necessarily believe, but it does make a kind of perverted sense. You have the motion ready and put it forward at the opportune moment. Why not?"
"That's pretty grubby," she said, inspecting her fingernails.
"That's politics."
Akira nodded. "Why do you think Ozu is waging war against the Purdah?"
"Is that a question? Honestly, the Purdah isn't what Ozu is selling, but you know that, right? You must know that?"
"Honestly, I'm not really sure what the Purdah is - as far as I can tell it's not even a real organisation. At least not in the sense of an Affiliate."
"It's bullshit to be blunt. It's a convenient label; that's all. I'm pretty sure it's just small gangs into piracy. I've never been convinced there's any firm links between them, any organisation, any real communication." Wynn gave a shrug. "The gangs work alone - it's convenient for them to fall under the same label."
Wynn swirled his glass. "There are some segments working towards something good - trying to free up trade, open up farming and medicine. Obviously some of the Affiliates will be against that, but as far as we're concerned it can only be positive."
"So, what does Ozu want with weapons?"
Wynn stared into the distance. "I hope we never have to find out," he said.
# # #
Tshilidzi: L5 Casino Platform, Lunar
12/06/6,544, 14:12 (IST)
Tshilidzi ambled across the casino floor - a kilometre stretch of gaming tables, fighting cages and betting machines. Garish lights flashed as ringing bells blared above the chatter and shouts of hundreds of the Union's richest and most fashionable citizens. The smells of cooked pork and cannabis smoke drifted by as a pair of beautiful female contortionists tangled their nude bodies around each other on a raised central stage.
"Investigator," a voice said to his right.
Tshilidzi took his eyes from the contortionists and smiled at a black-haired pale woman with bright green eyes. She wore a tight black leather suit and spiked heels.
"Investigator Tshilidzi Dumi," he said. "You must be?"
"They're amazing aren't they?" The woman gestured to the performers. "Quite arousing, wouldn't you agree?"
"Distracting, maybe."
The woman laughed. "Distraction is our business. They always bring to mind a complicated knot for me," she said. "Working out whose leg belongs to which body is part of the fun."
Tshilidzi looked around in wonder as he followed the woman through the crowds to a guarded area. "I'm sorry," said Tshilidzi, "I don't think I caught your name."
"You didn't catch my name because I didn't tell you my name," the woman said. "But you can call me D'lahal."
They passed a seated obese man dressed in layers of black leather with a long leather cape trailing behind him. He was draped by a pair of chiselled nude men as he played a game of Flip. "Who's he?" Tshilidzi whispered.
"He owns the cow monopoly," D'lahal said with a dismissive tone.
Tshilidzi's eyes widened. "Noram Krocop? The Noram Krocop?"
"Have you ever worn real leather?" D'lahal asked.
"Not real leather, no."
"It's absolutely luxurious. Do you like my suit? Do you like how it clings to me like a second skin?"
"Yes." Tshilidzi felt his face flush. "I mean, I've never worn--."
"And the meat! I assume you wouldn't have tasted beef before?"
"I haven't, but I hear it's delicious," he said.
"Absolutely mind-blowing. Decadent, expensive, completely wonderful."
"I'd love to try it."
"Through here."
Tshilidzi followed D'lahal through a concealed door leading from the casino floor and along a carpeted corridor adorned with shimmering abstract images, swirls of purples, blues and greens. They continued through a series of double doors, through the kitchens.
D'lahal placed her face in front of a security scanner and waited as a reinforced door hissed open. "Here we are," she said, pulling aside a sliding wall, unveiling the mining drone.
Tshilidzi examined the mantis-like drone for several minutes, writing observations and muttering to himself as D'lahal looked on with air of bored amusement. He squinted at the burnt-out communicator and the drill bit still encrusted with blood.
"I've seen the images of these drones," he said. "But nothing compares to seeing one before you."
"Once your investigation is complete, we should like to make this into an exhibit - a museum piece if you will," said D'lahal.
"An exhibit?"
"Obviously, we'll have to clean it up a bit first," mused D'lahal, "but I think it's quite striking, don't you?"
"Striking is certainly one word for it," he muttered as he worked a scanner over the drone's surface. He scratched his head while cursing under his breath.
The pair stood in silence.
"I've seen enough here," he sighed eventually. "Where was the body found?"
"This way."
D'lahal led the way out of the security door and made a right turn to the trade docks. After thirty metres she stopped. "Here we are," she said, pointing to an indistinct area of concrete floor. "Security found Yao Chin here. You'll have seen the images they sent?"
Tshilidzi nodded and scanned the area. The red light revealed where the pool of blood had been. "I've seen all I need to," he said.
"Did you find what you were looking for?" asked D'lahal.
"No, but I found what I expected."
# # #
Hayao: Judiciary Airlock, Insularum 1, Lunar
12/06/6,544, 12:01 (IST)
The first airlock closed behind Hayao as he awaited his fate. He closed his eyes and tried to picture Riko in his mind: her tiny eyes, her giggle, her endless wonder at all things new. He hoped it would give his mind clarity, give him something to focus on, but instead it flooded him with intense shame, guilt and sadness.
Hayao held his breath as the airlock clicked. He pictured the final humiliating scene of his execution: that moment where his nude body evacuated its bowels as he lies lifeless in a pile of his own shit.
Past the point of crying, his eyes were already red and burnt from a string of sleepless nights. He had passed feeling betrayed, passed feeling hopeless: he wanted it all to end.
Panic rose through him.
With a rush of strength, he lurched at the airlock behind him, pushing at it with his shoulder, but it was useless. "Let me out! I don't want to die," he called, his fists pounding on the airlock. "Please!"
He hoped above hope the guard would help him, the airlock would break or something, anything would save him. He hoped Takeshi would come to his senses and pardon him - he'd made his point. The drive to go back to his wife and daughter - to be there for his new ch
ild - was overwhelming.
He turned as the outer airlock clicked open. The air sucked outside with a violent gust.
He gasped as his sweat froze in the icy vacuum. He slumped to the ground, weak, breathless.
"Riko," he whispered. His consciousness faded to nothing.
# # #
Secretary cleared of corruption
Originally published by Lunar Chronicle 27/02/6,539
Lunar Secretary Takeshi Ozu will not face charges of corruption after the Judiciary found there was insufficient evidence of wrongdoing.
Sect Ozu had been accused by Heiwa Party leader Shinsuke Otami of accepting payments from Affiliates including the Muedin, Aghoro, Bani and Fune.
Rep Otami (L1) alleged that Sect Ozu used his position to gain wealth and told the Judiciary he had reason to believe no evidence would be found.
Investigator Tshilidzi Dumi told the United Solar Assembly earlier today his investigation had been inconclusive.
He said: "Although there are some actions by the Secretary that could point to corruption, there is insufficient evidence that any of the allegations are true.
"I therefore find no reason to charge Lunar Secretary Takeshi Ozu."
Following the verdict Sect Ozu said: "I'm relieved this investigation is over. I hope that I can now get on with my work and hopefully rebuild my reputation.
"Allegations can be very dangerous. I hope that other Representatives learn that using Assembly privilege to defame a member is completely inappropriate."
Rep Otami was unavailable for comment.
# # #
Part Two: The Slip
Chapter Six
Chao-xing: Lunar Band
10/01/6,543, 03:13 (IST)
"Can you imagine it?" asked Chao-xing, speaking into her helmet's communicator as she gestured across the surface of an expansive asteroid. "Lakes, trees, mountains - you can almost picture them."
As the Gravity Flipped Page 7