Hudson Death Rattle and the Fear
02 May 2021Kara waldeN
Rudolph Abelone was a harder man to find than Kara had originally expected. His business address was simple enough but that was nothing more than a rented virtual space in George Lucas station in the Leesti system. His official personal address was also empty.
She broke in at night to confirm it and quickly realised the apartment was simply a stage. Everything was set up to look like a person lived there but no one was home. Lighting was set to automatic. Entertainment was on a loop. There was even an art installation that consisted of a speaker under a flat metal plate. On top of the plate, coloured sand danced and formed itself into repeating patterns of increasing complexity as the speaker cycled through a range of tones. Numbers on the display showed which hertz created which pattern and as it cycled up to 6000hz the patterns became very abstract.
She filmed it for a while and uploaded it to the band’s social media.
“Neat,” she said and decided she had seen enough.
It was about time to leave the Old Worlds anyway. The Authorities were complaining about Hudson’s Death Rattle. Turns out the Alliance frowned on music that made its citizens defecate.
Before she left Kara sat down in a chair and took a good long look around the open plan apartment for any clues that she might have missed.
She hadn’t been there long before she got an unusual feeling and automatically reached for one of her knives that were always to hand.
In her entire existence Kara Walden had never experienced fear. Emotions in general were a kaleidoscope for her but the sociopathy that defined her also separated her from the basic human experiences of love and fear.
Now she was suddenly experiencing one of those primal emotions it wasn’t something she knew how to handle.
She came to her feet rapidly and checked the room again, knife raised and ready to act but there was nothing different. Nothing out of the ordinary, just an empty apartment.
Despite this obvious truth, the longer she stood there the stronger the urge to not be standing there became. She looked to the window she had entered through, glanced back to the room and saw, something, a shadow where no shadow should be.
She threw the knife with the speed of a viper but it passed through the apparition just as it vanished.
Another blade sprang into her hand just as a second Thing came through a wall to her right. Again the knife cut straight through the blurred outline and didn’t stop before it crashed into the wall behind it.
More of them came for her then and there was nothing she could do to prevent herself from turning and sprinting for the window. In three strides she was through and out, reaching for her rope, grabbing for it and twisting away.
She caught a glance back into the apartment and saw nothing at all before her auto belay activated and whisked her up and away to the roof.
The apartment had been empty. Only a knife stuck in the wall gave any clue to what had just happened. Although, truth be told Kara wasn’t quite sure what had just happened.
She stood on the roof for quite a while as she processed it.
One thing was certain though. Rudolph Abelone might well be better off being found by the Federation secret police rather than her.
She had one more lead to follow up.
The next gig was being held in the Nefertem system. Named for an ancient Egyptian God and final resting place of the Thetis Generation ship. After all, when you are out looking for some one who hides messages in sounds, where better to look than the graves of thousands of people who were killed by a mysterious message.
It was going to be a big event, the fans were arriving from all over the bubble, the moral groups were up in arms. Hudson Death Rattle were going to play their Singularity Death Metal in the Thetis.
Maybe if Kara couldn’t find Rudolph, perhaps he might find her.