Chapter XXVI: Justice Gunn

She froze, not wanting to argue the point with the half-dozen or so business ends of blasters pointed in her general direction, however that did not stop her from taking action. "Sergeant!" she barked, spotting the lead officer's rank displayed on his suit. "I am Captain Gunn, involved with a Justicar Investigation. Scan that and stand down!"

There was a rather pregnant pause for a moment. Andrea knew that the sergeant was rechecking her ID with the SP-net. A moment later, as one, the squad assumed attention postures, weapons slung back, and they were saluting her. "Yes, sir," said the sergeant. "Sorry, Justice Gunn. We had not been made aware of the change in your status."

No doubt, thought Andrea, as it probably happened within the last five minutes. Ryugen and his staff did work fast. "At ease, sergeant. As it happens, I do have need of your services, so your arrival is quite propitious." She turned to her door, and unlocked it. "I want two marines on duty in the cabin, guarding the body inside, and two outside. Justice officials will be waiting on the surface to take possession of the corpse. Understand?"

"Yes sir." The sergeant saluted again. "Justice Gunn? The pilot of the shuttle is requesting clearance to depart."

"Send him off, sergeant. I won't be needing him."

"Yes, sir." A moment later, the ship detached itself from the passenger car, and coasted away before departing out of view.

"Maintain guard here, sergeant until other justice agents come." The sergeant saluted, then turned and motioned two of his men into the compartment. She left him the ticket key, and went off in search of the attendant's compartment. She tapped a command into her wristcomm, and with her Justicar security privileges now active, Starrail's main computers gave up the information she wanted willingly. She was able to access the complete layout and schematics of the passenger car.

The attendant compartment and galley was on the third and lowest deck. She made her way down the narrow stairwell, and into the support section of the car. Passengers were not permitted in this section, but her ID opened the compartment door at the bottom of the stairs. One hand was on her blaster hilt just in case, but she wasn't expecting to encounter any resistance at this point.

Andrea saw motion in the rear of the compartment, where the attendants had a personal rest area. The forward section of the compartment was food storage and entertainment system access, as well as car system status readouts. She quietly made her way through the forward section, and peered into the rest area. The other occupant was a young woman sitting in front of monitor, watching an entertainment program. She was armed only with a bottled beverage. Andrea audibly cleared her throat to get the young woman's attention.

The woman jumped in surprise. "Oscar, where have…" Her voice trailed off and her eyes widened as she turned and saw Andrea. "Oh… excuse me, Ma'am, Passengers are not…"

Andrea stepped completely into the room and displayed her ID. "I'm Justice Gunn, on official business."

"Oh," exclaimed the woman again, glanced at Andrea's ID, and blanched. Officers that worked for the Justicar division of the Stellar Patrol were generally viewed with terror and fear. Just the word from a Justicar could override most civil legal processes on all Terran governed worlds, sealing a citizen's fate forever. Regardless that there were only a few Justicars, and they tended to operate out on the fringes of the Terran sphere, but they represented one of the highest levels of law enforcement provided by the Terran Federated worlds. Often they were called in as Judges, and their word was final, with no appeal. They had the authority to command both Stellar Patrol and civil forces and resources as needed. They were the law. "Wha… What can I do for you, ma'am?" the woman's voice stuttered.

Andrea smiled at her, in an attempt to ease the woman's sudden fear of encountering one of the dreaded Justicars. "What can you tell me about the other attendant that was working with you?"

"Oscar's in trouble?" The woman's voice still trembled as she started to access the system's terminal. Andrea didn't reply as the file came up on the screen.

There wasn't much there, noted Andrea as she glanced though the readout. Oscar Madison had started working for Starrail corporation three months ago, and after a brief training period, was assigned passenger car attendant duty with Cailia Richardson, the name of the woman Andrea was currently talking with. Nothing unusual at all, not even any sick time taken. Andrea looked up from the readout, and sat down in a chair next to Cailia. "What can you tell me about him. Was he acting any different at all today? I need to know anything that seemed out of ordinary to you. It's very important. Please. What did you two do from the start of the trip down?"

"Oh. Okay." Cailia seemed to become more relaxed as it was apparent that it wasn't her that Andrea was interested in. "Well, it's been pretty normal. We took over from the ascent crew. Oscar made a joke about the Elvis guy." Cailia gave Andrea a timid smile. Regardless of validity of their beliefs, the Interstellar Church of Elvis always seemed to be the butt end of a lot of jokes.

"Go on," encouraged Andrea, returning her smile.

"We boarded though the employee hatch," said Cailia, motioning to the access hatch at the rear of the compartment. "We checked over the inventory, then just prior to departure, we both walked through the cars to make sure all the passengers were secure, then gave the go-ahead to start our descent." Andrea nodded to indicate she understood. "We returned here, and started preparing the breakfasts that would be needed to be served soon. About a half-hour after we started the descent, the buzzer went off. One of the passengers requesting assistance. Oscar volunteered to go."

"Don't you respond over an intercom?" asked Andrea.

Cailia shook her head. "No, Ma'am. Starrail prides itself on it's personal service. That's why we have a galley instead of replicators."

"Ah, okay."

"So anyway, he left, that was about 45 minutes ago, and I'm still waiting for him to get back. We have to start serving breakfast soon. I had to finish all the meals by myself."

"I see. Which passenger was it that requested his assistance?"

Cailia looked up at the monitor board. "Compartment One-C. That was the compartment the Elvis was in."

"Didn't you try calling the compartment to see what was taking him so long?"

"Yes, ma'am, I did, but there was no answer."

"Do you have a video feed for that compartment?" asked Andrea, starting to feel a little exasperated.

"Yes, ma'am, but we're not allowed to use it except in a case of emergency. Passenger's privacy is paramount."

"Well," snapped Andrea, harsher than she meant to. "Consider this an emergency. Access the vid."

"Yes, ma'am." Cailia's fingers typed out the commands, and the monitor went dark. Cailia looked puzzled, and performed a couple of other commands. "I don't understand it, ma'am. The vid shows that it's functioning fine, but there's no picture."

"Somehow, I'm not surprised. I would like you to check the log and see when the vid stopped working, please."

"Ma'am?" Cailia looked puzzled.

"Check the vid log, and find out when the signal went black. Please."

"Uhm, ma'am, we don't have video logs. Until you asked for it, there was no vid of that cabin because…"

"The passenger's privacy is paramount." finished Andrea in frustration. "Right. Fine." She let out a sigh. "Okay. You start with your serving of breakfast. There are six SP marines outside cabin Two-A, and I'm sure they would appreciate some breakfast too. Charge it to my account." She stood up. "I'm going to check out that cabin."

"Yes, ma'am. What about Oscar? Is he in trouble?"

Andrea's face darkened. "I'm sorry, Miss Richardson. I don't know. I won't know until I have a look in compartment One-C. I'll let you know when I find out. However, I would not expect him to be available to assist you for the remainder of the descent." With that, Andrea strode out of the support compartment, heading for the top level of the passenger car.

She paused outside the compartment door to One-C. The privacy screen was down, and there was a small red glow on the ident panel, indicating that the door was locked, and in Do-Not-Disturb mode. She placed her ID on the ident panel, and smiled as she saw that the ident panel glow green. Without hesitation, she drew her blaster and yanked the door open.

The only occupant was a naked human male body face down on the floor. Keeping her blaster trained on the body, she approached it slowly, her eyes darting over it, noticing several long, odd bruises on the body's arms and back. It was not breathing.

She turned the body over, and saw it was the male attendant that had passed her when she boarded, and his appearance matched the file image on file with Starrail. He was also very dead. Andrea holstered her blaster, and looked over the compartment. There was a pile of clothes on the seat. She looked them over, and discovered that they were the clothes that the Elvis had worn.

It was obvious what had occurred now. The Ferlon, already pretending to be the Elvis, had boarded the shuttle, then lured the attendant to him, and took his place. Moving around the car would have been less noticeable as the attendant than as the Elvis. Which would mean that somewhere on the ring, the body of the Elvis would be found.

She called Ryugen at this point, and gave him the details of her findings. There was still more to check, but she had found the important links. She gave Ryugen the dead Elvis's ID.

"Thanks, Gunn. We'll have someone backtrack the Elvis. The rail car is still several thousand kilometers from Earth, so we'll send up a ship to collect the bodies. Travel back with them and report in. Understand?"

"Affirmative, chief. See you when we get there. Gunn out."

To Be Continued...