by John Jonas
CHAPTER 6
Only once a year does both moons, Eos and the more distant moon, Ios, line up one behind the other but when it happens at night the view is spectacular. As the two orbs, one brighter than the other, begin to align, they seem to merge into one bright star. On evenings like this Jarvick knows that two things always happen; the tides get unusually high and the population goes goofy and he will be one busy detective. The tidal changes don’t concern him because he lives well away from the ocean but he knows from past experience that this will be his busiest month of the year. His friends and family tell him that he is just imagining it or that it’s just coincidence but he knows it’s real. He’s seen it almost every year since he started as a patrolman ten years ago when he graduated from the academy. There is a noticeable increase in thefts, assault and disturbing the peace arrests when lunar alignment happens and the Directorate Police Department is always busy during this time of year.
Jarvick lives in a small apartment in the capital city of Vendorra, which is quiet this morning, but he knows that it will change as the day wears on. After he and his girlfriend split up two months ago, Detective 2nd Class Jarvick III decided it was best to move closer to the precinct headquarters and save on the rent. Vendorra is a large city situated in the central zone of the Western Province on Gavilon. Seventy five percent of the planet is ocean, leaving two landmasses to hold all the inhabitants, called provinces. The Western Province is the larger of the two and is where the majority of the population is. The Eastern Province is the where the farming is done; most of the food produced for the people is grown there. There is a small mine located on the extreme southern tip that is responsible for all the Solinium that is needed for power production.
There are a few islands scattered around but only one is large enough to have a population, and it is used as a prison for those offenders that cannot be rehabilitated. It is located between the two provinces and when a criminal is sent to Modor, he knows it’s for the rest of his life.
The orange sun was shining through the window as Jarvick finished getting dressed for work. His uniform consisted of a black shirt with his detective insignia of three white stripes on the left sleeve, black pants with white stripe on each side, black shoes and white Police hat with the black brim. His belt had hooks for the steel baton, stunwave gun holster, handcuffs and his radio. He finished the last of his juice as he walked through the kitchen, put the glass in the sink and walked out of his apartment. The elevator doors opened as soon as he hit the call button so he stepped inside and hit the button for the first floor. The precinct was a block away so he walked west on 2nd street as he does almost every morning and turned on his radio.
The desk sergeant greeted him as he entered the station and Jarvick climbed the stairs up to the second floor where his Captain was waiting on him.
“I got a hot one for ya’ Jarvick, the space jockeys are missing a man and they can’t contact him. They say he lives in Sector two, just outside the city limit, and I need you to go and check his place out.”
“Do I need a partner for this or can I do this solo?” he asked.
The captain said “Take a cruiser to check it out by yourself and call it in, it’s just a welfare check.”
Two patrolmen walked in, each one had somebody in handcuffs as they escorted them toward the rear detention area. It was a man and a woman, both screaming at each other. Jarvick thought to himself that the craziness has already started and the day had just begun.
He went to the motor pool and picked up a cruiser that didn’t smell too bad and drove north on 3rd street toward the north side of the city. The streets were laid out in a grid pattern with the east-west ones even numbered and the north-south ones were odd numbered. All the cars used the Kalderite coating to hover off the ground and propel them but they were limited at the factory to no more than a foot off the ground. They also had a maximum speed limiter that was well below the police cruisers. These rules were set by the Directorate to maintain order and safety, which has worked well for many years. The cars used by the police are not limited by these rules and are strictly regulated and controlled. This advantage helps the police to control traffic and capture criminals on the run. The cruiser can catch up to the vehicle and pass above it, which shuts off the Kalderite effect due to the physical forces of the anti-gravity coating. When the gravity reflecting coating is above another one, it counteracts this effect and overrides it, thus “shutting off” the vehicle underneath it.
When Jarvick reached 82nd street he turned left and parked in front of a run-down apartment building that looked to be about thirty stories. His sheet had the missing person’s apartment listed as 2507. He got out of the patrol car and walked up the cracked sidewalk to the front door. Two elevators were inside, one with an “Out of Order” sign taped to the door.
He pressed the call button and waited. A door down the hall opened a crack and a woman peeked out, then the door slammed shut. The elevator was one of those fast ones that make your stomach jump up into your throat. When it reached the 25th floor and the doors opened he walked down the hall to 2507 and knocked on the door. Jarvick put his ear to the door and listened but heard nothing. After knocking a few more times, he went back down to look for the manager, which he found and showed his ID. He persuaded him to come back upstairs and open the door so he could look in the apartment for any evidence of foul play. When he got the door open, the first thing he noticed was the dust on all the horizontal surfaces. This apartment has been empty for a long time and it showed. The detective made his notes as he walked around and looked for any clues that he could find. The apartment manager stayed in the hallway as Jarvick asked him to.
When he opened the bedroom closet, the radiation detector on his belt started beeping so he backed out quickly and shut the door. Jarvick thought Radiation? Why is there radiation in that closet? He went into the main room and radioed the station.
“HQ, this is Jarvick. I’ve got a situation here. I’m going to need a containment team and some lab techs, ASAP.”
The watch captain replied “What type of situation, Detective?”
“I’ve got a radiation alert in an apartment building. I was checking on a missing person and my rad-alarm went off.”
The radio was quiet for a little too long, then “Understood. We are sending a team there now. Keep the area clear. Out.”
Jarvick walked out into the hall and told the manager that he could go, and that there was going to be some police activity in the apartment.
“What happened in there? Did somebody get killed?” the manager asked.
Jarvick said “No, nothing like that. It’s just routine follow-up on a missing person. Nothing to worry about.” At that, the manager left grumbling something under his breath.
Ten minutes later, about a half dozen officers got off the elevator as Jarvick was standing in the hall. When he saw the blonde haired woman carrying two cases in her hands, he put on his best smile and went to greet her. “Need a hand with one of those?” he asked. He thought Matea was one of the best looking lab techs he had ever met and wanted to get to know her. She handed him one and asked “How ya’ been, Jarvick? I haven’t seen you in weeks.”
“I’ve been doing okay. How about you?” he asked.
“I’ve been just fine. What do we have here?”
“Missing person, mineworker on Rylos by the name of Hemet, friends say they haven’t seen him in six months. He usually works a six month tour in the mines but they say he never showed up.”
They had entered the apartment and she set down one of the cases and reached for the one Jarvick was holding. “Hand me that case, I need to suit up.” Matea took the case and went into the bedroom and closed the door. After 20 minutes, she emerged and said “I need three more bags. We are going to have to take all the clothes in that closet back to the lab, I can’t identify the type of radiation we have but it’s all hot. Get a containment van parked in front of the building and we can carry it down after it’
s bagged up.”
The next day, Jarvick was doing some reports on his data terminal when the Captain called him into his office. As Jarvick entered the glass enclosed office he saw Matea was there too. He smiled involuntarily as the Captain pointed at the chairs and closed the blinds. He asked Matea to read her report.
“There were three items of clothing, work-suits, that were highly radioactive. I’ve narrowed down the cause of contamination, but it’s very unusual.”
Jarvick asked “What is it? Solinium?”
“No. Would you believe Uranium?” She said.
Both men’s faces tuned pale and there was an uneasy quiet for a few seconds.
“Uranium is illegal on Gavilon and the only place you can get it is Earth! How the heck did it get here??” the Captain yelled.
Jarvick said “I don’t know yet, sir, I’m going to be trying to interview his known associates today. Maybe they can shed some light on his recent activities.”
The Captain said “Okay, you two need to work together on this. Find out what he’s been doing for the last year, where he’s gone, canvas the sector he lives in. Matea, take along a radiation sniffer and see if there are any more hot spots in the city and keep me informed.”
Jarvick said “Will do Cap” as they both stood and left. The Captain said “Oh, and detective, I’m going to get the transport department to issue you a hyperlight cruiser and a jump belt. You may be going on a trip.”
“Oh, great” he thought. “A month long trip to Earth”, and then he remembered someone he had not thought about in many years, his brother.
Jarvick had an investigation to do, however, so he would worry about that later.