The Icarus Hunt

"I've never seen one of any size," I said. "I can tell you one thing, though: These things really mess up victim identification."

"I can imagine," he said soberly. "Face, retinas, and prints, plus any IDs ordatadisks the victim happens to be carrying, all destroyed or badly damaged. Aconvenient little side effect of the killing shot."

"You have such a way with words," I growled. "I just hope these things don'tcatch on with the taverno brawling crowd."

"I think that highly unlikely," Ixil assured me. "Aside from the tremendousmanufacturing costs involved and the relative ease of detection, coronaweaponsby their nature have a very short range. Three meters, I'd guess; four at theoutside."

I shivered. In an uncomfortably large number of situations, a four-meter rangewould be perfectly adequate for the purpose. "Remind me to practice up on mydistance shots."

"Good idea." He dropped the guns into his hip pouch. "I'll try taking oneapartlater and see if I can figure out where it was made. Right now, I'm morecurious about this deadly accident of yours."

"I'll admit right up front that it's got me stumped," I said, feelingdisgustedwith myself. Strange and unpleasant things were happening all around me, andso far I didn't have a handle on any of it. "I ran a diagnostic across the wholesystem, and I can't figure how the grav generator kicked in when it did."

"You are, of course, hardly an expert in such things," Ixil pointed out, not unkindly. "There are three main locations where the generator can be turned on: the bridge, engineering, and computer."

"Right," I said. That much I knew. "I was on the bridge—and I didn't do it—

Revs Nicabar was in engineering, and Tera was handling the computer."

"Both of them alone, I take it?"

"Nicabar definitely was," I said. "The only way back there is through the wraparound, which was serving as airlock at the time."

"Odd design," Ixil murmured, glancing around.

"Tell me about it," I said dryly. "I don't know if Tera was alone, but the only person who could have been with her was Hayden Everett, our medic."

"Who you also said helped Jones on with his suit before the incident," Ixil said thoughtfully.

"You think there's a connection?"

He shrugged, a human gesture he'd picked up from me. "Not necessarily; I merely note the fact. I also note the fact that if Everett wasn't with Tera, that means all the rest of the crew were alone."

"Actually, no," I corrected him. "Geoff Shawn, the electronics man, had come to the bridge to watch Chort's spacewalk on my monitors."

"Really," he said. "Interesting."

I cocked an eyebrow. "In what way?"

"I said there were three main places where the grav generator could be turned on," he said, stroking his cheek thoughtfully with stubby fingertips. "But there are probably several other places where someone could jump power into the system."

"I was afraid of that," I said heavily. "I suppose it would be too much to ask that there would be no way to set that sort of thing up with a timer."

"You mean so that Shawn's appearance on the bridge might have been solely to establish an alibi for himself?"

"Something like that."

He shrugged again. "If he could tap into the system, I see no reason he couldn't set it up on a timer, too." He paused. "Of course, for that matter, the same thing goes for Chort and Jones."

I frowned. "You must be kidding."

"Must I?" he countered. "Look at the facts. Chort wasn't injured in the fall, at least not very seriously. And if Jones set it up, he may have planned to catch him before he fell too far."

"And his motive?"

"Whose, Jones's or Chort's?"

"Either one."

Ixil shrugged. "What motive does anyone here have? That's the main reason I hesitate to ascribe any of this to malice."

I sighed; but he was right. Considering the Icarus's, haphazard design, glitches could easily turn out to be the rule rather than the exception. "What about Jones's rebreather?"

Ixil hissed softly between his teeth. "That one I don't like at all," he said.

"I don't suppose you still have it."

I shook my head. "We had to turn over the suit and rebreather both withJones's body."

"I was afraid of that," he said. "I would have liked to have looked it over.

Frankly, I don't know if it's even theoretically possible for a rebreather tomalfunction that way on its own."

"Then you're thinking sabotage?"

"That would be my guess; but again, for what purpose? Why would anyone aboardwant to kill Jones?"

"How should I know?" I asked irritably. "These people are total strangers tome."

"Exactly my point," he said. "From your description of how Cameron was hiringhis crewers, all these people are supposedly also total strangers to eachother."

I frowned. That part hadn't occurred to me. "You're right," I said slowly, thinking back to that first meeting back at the base of the Icarus's stairway.

"No one gave any indication of knowing any of the others. At least not when Iwas watching."

"Which implies that if any of this is deliberate there must be some othermotivation," Ixil concluded. "The general sabotage of the ship, perhaps, orthe systematic disabling of the crew."

"Tied in with Cameron's failure to show up at the ship, maybe?" I suggested.

"Could be," Ixil agreed. "The massive manhunt we saw near the archaeology digwould support that theory, not to mention your playmates with the high-techweaponry."

I drummed my fingers on the deck. "So where does that leave us?"

"With quite a few unknowns," Ixil said. "The key one, in my mind, being thismysterious cargo you're carrying. Have you any idea what's in there?"

"None whatsoever," I said. "There's nothing listed in the computer that Icould find, and there are no access panels listed on the schematics where we couldeven go to take a look. When Cameron said it'd been sealed, he meant it."

"We may have to find some way to unseal it before we're done with this," Ixilsaid.

There was a scrabbling sound at the hatchway, and Pix and Pax appeared. "Okay, I

give up," I asked, finally tired of wondering about it. "What exactly havetheybeen doing out there? Neither you nor they know what any of the crew lookslike."

"Given your brush with the Lumpy Brothers, as you call them, it occurred to methat someone might have the Icarus under surveillance," Ixil said as theferrets climbed his torso to his shoulders again. "I'm watching for anyone who seemsto be loitering around the area without a legitimate reason to do so."

"Ah. And?"

"If he's there, he's very good at his job," Ixil concluded. "By the way, isone of your crewers about one-point-nine meters tall and bulking out at a goodhundred ten kilograms, with short black hair and a face like a throw-boxerwith a bad win/loss record?"

"Sounds like our medic, Everett," I said, scooting across the floor to hisside.

Sure enough, there he was, heading toward us with an air of briskdetermination about him. "Yes, that's him," I confirmed, getting to my feet. "Be nice, now—he's probably never seen a Kalix before."

Apparently lost in his own thoughts, Everett didn't even notice us standing inthe shadow of the wraparound until he was halfway up the ramp. Judging fromhow high he jumped, he had indeed never seen a Kalix before. "It's all right—don'tworry," I said quickly, before he could turn tail and run for the hills. "Thisis Ixil. He's with us."

"Ah," Everett said, regaining his balance and most of his composure andpeeringoddly at Ixil. "So this is your partner. Ixil, was it?"

"Yes," Ixil said. "How did you know I was Jordan's partner?"

Everett blinked. "He said he would be bringing his partner in to take Jones'splace," he said, looking at me uncertainly. "Just before we set down. Didn'tyousay that?"