Personal Log 96: 1st - 7th February, 3302 (Part Two)
09 Oct 2016Jemine Caesar
1st - 7th February, 3302 (Part Two) We left Eta Serpentis the next day, 3rd of February, happier in the knowledge that the attempt on Precious Jones's life had failed.
Calling in at Ross 154 on the way back towards Beta Hydri, I took on a courier job to ferry explosives to Luhman 16. There I bought up fifteen canisters of titanium, hoping to find a customer prepared to pay a good price for it.
Back at Stevenson Base, Sam and I decided to arrange another trip to the theatre down on Homeland. "Let's go and watch a comedy," I said. "There's one called "Docking Complete".
Sam raised an eyebrow. "Sounds kinky," he said.
"Sounds like fun!" I replied, and booked the tickets.
The following day, as we were looking forward to our theatre trip, a k-cast message came in from Admiral Remi...
*****
From: Admiral G Remi, Director FIS, Mars High, Sol
To: commanders S Hodkin and J Caesar
Date: 4 February 3302
Mes amis,
I am pained greatly to be once again the bearer of bad news.
Word has come to me through channels from Eta Serpentis system security. The body of Mademoiselle Precious Jones was discovered in her Carver Station apartment two hours ago. Early indications are that the cause of death was a massive coronary. There were no signs of struggle. The local police are treating it as death by natural causes.
The alarm was raised by a colleague of the deceased, a Doctor Zev Awolowo. He paid a visit to enquire after her well being, and grew concerned when he received no response at her door. He called the police, who entered the apartment and found Mademoiselle Jones' body on the floor.
There is no doubt we deal with a serial killer. I have made a request to use my own operatives as a bodyguard detachment for the remaining women on the harem list of John Graham. Sadly this has been denied due to its being a civilian matter. I deeply regret that I can do no more.
Regards,
Georges
*****
I burst into floods of tears. "Sam," I wailed. "What am I going to do? Six girls on that list are now dead, and the pattern of their deaths is obvious. Another four to go and then it'll be me! What do I do?"
Sam wrapped a protective arm around me. "You carry on as normal, Jem. We'll go to see that show tonight as planned. And maybe we can call in at the Rose. The old piano needs its keys tinkling, and a couple of songs from you would go down a treat with the punters."
I gave him a wan smile. "You're right, Sam. I can't keep looking over my shoulder all the time, can I? We'll go to see the show, although I may not be laughing very much."
The play was funny; it even managed to make me forget my troubles for a couple of hours at least. The programme mentioned that the authors, Tony Chalk and Johnny Cheese, were writing a sequel.
"We'll have to watch out for that, Sam," I said as we left the theatre for the return shuttle to Stevenson Base.
Back in the Rose, Sam took the seat at the piano. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said. "Miss Jemine Caesar."
I hoped Wy would have approved of my rendition of 'waSTEd beLIEf'.
Sam made some k-cast calls the next day. "I may have found some assistance for the remaining harem girls, Jem," he said. " A former naval colleague of mine, Daniel Maguire, heads a small team of mercenaries. Daniel's an honourable man. If any of the girls want protection, they only have to ask."
I picked up my dataslate. "Thank you, Sam," I said. "The harem list includes k-cast contact details for all the girls. I'll send them all a message to warn them of the danger, and to pass on your friend's offer of protection. The killer must slip up sooner or later. Then we'll be rid of this nightmare for ever."
*****
The following day, February 5th, Sam received a tip-off that some of the Black Widow gang were in LHS 2310. Not wanting to waste a second, he pulled on his flightsuit, kissed me farewell, and hurried out to his ship.
I busied myself with some courier work, taking data chips to Zeta Tucanae. There I found another job, this time transporting a load of polysatinester fabric to LHS 3836. These two jobs paid me almost 20,000CR. I'd been thinking about giving The Last Thing a little more firepower lately, so I had two pulse lasers fitted at a cost of 13,000CR.
One more delivery job took me to Minmar, where I met up with Sam again. His mission in LHS 2310 had gone well; one less Black Widow mobster to worry about. We set course for Sol, and rendezvoused at Mars High.
We'd only just settled in our room when my dataslate beeped. It was from Suzanne Telford, a harem girl I had met back in June 3301.
"Hi Jem," she said. "Thanks for the message, I'll keep a look out. It would be good to see you again next time you're in Swigert Port. I'll even throw in a free facial!"
I looked at Sam. "It doesn't sound as if she wants any protection from your friend," I said.
"Well," said Sam, pulling out his own dataslate. "There's been a development. Look at this Galnet article." I took the slate...
"A woman has been arrested by Sol police on suspicion of murdering several women in the last month. It is rumoured that her victims included the pop singer Wy, previously thought to have committed suicide on 1st January. Police have confirmed the name of the suspect as Aoife Hohnlein."
I was astonished. Aoife Hohnlein was dead! She shot herself weeks ago. What was going on? Then I took a closer look at the picture of the woman that accompanied the article.
"Sam," I said, "this isn't her. This isn't Aoife Hohnlein!"
Sam took another look at the picture. "Wait a moment..." he said, furrowing his brow in thought. "I never met Aoife, so I didn't really pay attention to the picture. But now I'm looking properly, I know who she really is. It's Ilyana Rozhnev, one of Alec Russell's old flames, and current member of the Black Widow gang."
Now I was really confused. "But why would she impersonate Aoife Hohnlein?" I asked.
Sam gave a shrug of his broad shoulders. "Who knows? But now she's been caught, and, with the rest of the gang all but neutralised, let's hope these murders have come to an end."
This was a turn of events I hadn't considered before. Alec Russell must have somehow acquired the harem list, and his gang had been picking us off one by one. It would only have been a matter of time before they had come for me.
Had it all been Alec Russell's twisted way of terrorising Sam?
*****
Nathalie called the next day. I told her about the latest developments with the harem murders.
"So it seems that Alec Russell was responsible all along," I concluded.
"Well, you have to be careful, Jem," she replied. "That Russell guy is still out there. If you need me, you just give me a call, I will be close for you."
Later, checking the Pilot's Federation uninet site, I posted welcome messages to some new pilots, Argent Steel, Engalo, and Nuclear Satan. All three pilots presently sent me friend requests, which I accepted.
Then, while delivering fruit and vegetables to Sol, I was hailed by an old friend, Aidan Venters. Aidan explained he'd been grounded for a while due to certain family issues.
"My dad's upset I didn't become a fisherman, like him," he told me. "And I'm not seeing eye to eye with my sister's boyfriend. He's not what I would call a savory character."
I advised him to be patient. "Don't try to argue with your sister over him," I urged, "or you'll lose her. Just be there to support her when she needs you."
More delivery jobs followed: biowaste to Duamta, more fruit to Sol, liquor to Groombridge 1618, fish to Delta Pavonis. And I finally managed to sell the 15 canisters of titanium I'd had in my hold for the last few days, at Iman Caber. I was also hailed by Argent Steel, one of the new commanders I had welcomed on the Pilot's Federation site.
"Howdy, ma'am," he said in a strangely attractive drawling voice, as his holo-image flickered into view on my dashboard. I could see he was wearing a rather curious looking wide-brimmed hat. We exchanged a few pleasantries, speaking about our travels and our ships.
"Perhaps I could buy you a drink sometime?" he said.
"Thank you," I replied. "Should our courses ever cross, I would like that very much."
Back at Stevenson Base, Sam told me he was thinking of starting up a music night at the Rose.
"I'm planning on reforming a band I used to be in, and with you on vocals we'd go down a storm."
Sam told me the band used to perform songs popular on Earth in the 20th and 21st century. I asked if there was any favourites in particular.
"Well," he replied, "there was a really famous group from Britain, called The Beatles."
I'd never heard of them, and wondered why they were named after insects...
I ended the week with a bit of a spending spree on upgrades for The Last Thing: a larger cargo rack, a detailed surface scanner, and an intermediate discovery scanner. I also noted my current Pilot Ratings: Combat = Mostly Harmless (72%), Trader = Merchant (15%), Explorer = Mostly Aimless (93%). My Federation rep was 'Friendly' (54%). And my credit balance was now 1,692,266CR.
Oh, and I bought a new Lalande handbag for myself.