Authors: Max Feinstein
Medical examiner Richard Brenington ascended his stone walkway with a briefcase in hand, while admiring another crisp night on Kolver Island. He had purposely constructed the landing pad away from his house in order to take advantage of the picturesque surroundings. Above him Telcore’s twin moons shone brightly and reflected off the clear waters of Mist Azure Lake. The large lake was located within the center of Kolver Island and the moon light caused it glow a mix of blue and violet from a chemical reaction within the unique algae that lived under its surface. This light emerged from the water and sparkled in the darkness, dancing off the thick trees that surrounded the warm water lake.
It was a beautiful sight that he had not seen in over a month.
It contrasted greatly from the bustling urban cityscape that he normally lived in. Like most other government employees Richard lived in an apartment complex during most of the year, but unlike them, he also had a beautiful vacation home to get away to on his time off. This home was kept secret from everyone that he knew because they would all question his ability to afford such an extravagance. While he made a good living for himself, most people would know that there was very little chance a medical examiner could build oneself an island getaway without some kind of financial assistance.
That assistance came from sources he never discussed with anyone. One
s that would cause him great trouble if ever found out. His benefactor had actually corrupted him years ago in his time of need and moral weakness. It all started from a request to help liberate minor evidence from a trivial repossession case. Once he removed that single piece of evidence and broke a major law, there was no going back. From that point he was bought and paid for by that same requester. Throughout his employment by the same individual he amassed a fair amount of money and could not hold back long from using it to suit his expanding tastes. What he didn’t know, however, was that this same spending made him stand out in a thorough investigation.
At the moment, though, surrounded by gently swaying trees and knee high florescent glowing flowers, Richard didn’t have a care in the world. He only knew that he finally had
all of the holiday week to himself. A week without all of the city crowds and chaos of the New Year’s Day celebrations. A week filled with relaxing and fishing on the lake in his private boat would do him well. He had just completed another unwanted assignment by his unregistered employer and needed to get away from people for a while. It disgusted him to think of what he had become, but he tried his best to not think about such things has he ascended the walkway and finally stepped onto his large porch area. Richard continued to tell himself that he had no other choice in the matter except going to jail should anyone ever find out.
Taking one last deep breath of the fresh cool night air, Richard let it out slowly along with all his worries
. As he set foot on his large syncrete front porch all his problems began to fade. The home’s security system automatically detected him approaching and unlocked the front door. Richard watched the upper half of the door rise up as the lower half split in half, parting into each side of the door frame. A smile grew on his face when he actually entered his house and set the work briefcase down beside the door. Taking a quick look around he saw that everything was just how he liked it. The place was much larger than his city apartment with a highly open floor plan. His Spartan like furnishing of the place made it look larger still.
Once he pulled off his jacket he instantly noticed that something was off. His automated companion unit
, Becky, was nowhere to be seen. The CU-43 companion robot was always there to greet him when he came home. Her systems were linked directly to those of the house so there was very little chance that she would miss him approaching the place. Richard began to slowly proceed into the house as the doors behind him slid shut. Inside there was a growing feeling that was something was not right.
“Becky… I’m home,” Richard called out softly while walking cautiously through the house on his search.
Once he reached the spacious kitchen relief came over him as he saw his beautiful Becky standing with her back to him. She was wearing the short violet dress he loved so much and her hair was perfect as ever, flowing down her back like a strawberry blonde waterfall. She had curves in all the right places and never changed. That was one reason he loved having a companion bot instead of a living human being. Humans were so unpredictable and Richard had no need for that in his life. He was not a big fan of change and Becky stayed the same no matter what. She also catered to all his needs without complaint and knew all his wants. Her sophisticated third generation intelligent programming allowed her to still make choices on her own, but within certain parameters. In addition she could hold a conversation with him on almost any subject, which was more than he could say for other people.
“Hey darling, I missed you,” Richard said with a renewed smile as he moved a little closer to her.
For an unexplained reason she went against her programming and did not respond to him. She continued to stand there silently while chopping various vegetables beside the stove. There was no other movement from her to indicate any sort of acknowledgement of him. This lack of action was very worrisome as he had never experienced anything like it before. Perhaps it was a malfunction of some sort, she was after all a machine underneath all of that synthetic skin. He deeply hoped that that was all that was wrong with the unit.
“What’s for dinner Becky,” he tried again.
“It’ll be ready in a moment, please have a seat and relax,” she actually said this time without turning towards him.
With that finally acknowledgement Richard’s suspicious receded back into his mind. He looked over at the large curved kitchen table and noticed that it was already set for two.
His eyes quickly noted the expensive plates and silverware laid out for him. Beside each plate was a large wine glass filled with a dark bluish-purple liquid. Since Becky never really drank the stuff it surprised him to see a fill glass beside her plate. As before he decided to dismiss this observation until later and pulled the chair out in front of his setting.
Richard sat down slowly on the comfortable seat cushion and relaxed into it
. Reaching out he took the wine glass in hand and with closed eyes took a slow sip of the slightly odd and bitter tasting Voltaria Wine. Made from the fruit of a plant that only grew on Voltara the wine was a highly acquired and expensive taste. The fruits were almost completely inedible, though, until mixed with a special blend of other exotic fruits and spices. This highly guarded combination gave the wine a distinct taste unlike that of any other. It rarity made it a hard find throughout the Federation as most batches were sold out before they could hit the shelves of select retailors. He was the middle of savoring his second sip from the glass when a foreign voice resounded through the kitchen.
“Mr. Richard Stephen Brenington,
” the voice said and caused Richard’s head to quickly turn and see a shadow standing in the kitchen’s other doorway. Reflexively Richard tried to stand up and face the person, but at that second his body became pinned to the chair he was sitting in. Try as he might he could not free himself. He felt his entire body being sucked into it and his arms fall down at his sides as if they weighed many tons.
“Born on Standard Earth Day August 20th 2433 to a Ms. Jillian Flemming on Erdinal before being adapted by the Brenington family at eight years of age and subsequently growing up on Imus Tau. Graduated class of 2456 from Wiloamir Medical Academy,” Xander Wietzhausen continued to say without pause as he stepped out of the darkness into the brightly lit kitchen
. He was dressed in sleek black clothing that looked of military origin.
“Please, no need to get up,” Xander said after a short pause while moving to the table opposite of Richard and pulling out the chair for himself, “the graviplate will only increase in intensity the more you struggle. I suggest you relax and maybe we can get this over this in a short amount of time with a minimum of discomfort. That all depends on how cooperative you are.”
“Who are you?! What are you doing in my house?!” Richard growled in anger as he watched this intruder sit down in one of his chairs and place a metallic looking briefcase on the table’s surface.
“You’ve done rather well for yourself, haven’t you Mr. Flemming. Much better than most others from that backwater planet you call your birthplace,” Xander stated while ignoring the questions presented to him. He knew what he had to say in order to get Richard off guard and emotionally compromised.
Never taking his eyes off his prey, Xander reached over for his own glass of wine and slowly brought it to his lips, “Voltaria, very expensive. How ever did you afford such luxury on a medical examiner’s salary?”
“I don’t have to answer to you or anyone else. This is completely illegal! If you leave now you can probably escape from the police that are on their way,” Richard exclaimed with as
much force as he could muster on the circumstances. He tried to free at least one of his hands, but it was no see. As the man had stated previously the gravity field around only increased further in a one to one ration with the force he applied against it.
Xander simply smiled at the man and moved the glass in his hand, swirling the liquid inside it slowly. For a moment the entire kitchen was silent except for the sound of Becky’s knife against the cutting board behind him. He let the quiet sink in before leaning over the table on his elbows
and looked directly into Richard’s hazel eyes.
“Do I look scared to you, Mr. Flemmings?” he finally asked and tilted his head just a
bit, “I don’t hear any sirens either. Personally I don’t think anyone is coming to save you. Your only real chance to make it out of this is answering all of my questions truthfully.”
Leaning back into his chair once again, Xander continued to watch Richard. His highly augmented eyes and brain monitoring the prisoner for each micro-expression in response to his prodding in order to
catch any sign of deception. At the same time he registered every change in the man’s heart rate and temperature. All of these abilities made him highly effective at reading truthfulness or lack thereof. At the moment he could interpret true fear of the uncertain coursing through Richard.
“That’s…that’s not my name,” Richard let out with some remaining defiance.
“Sure it is,” Xander replied just as the android moved up beside him.
“You
r dinner, sir,” it said with a smile as it set the plate of food down in front of him.
Xander looked over the steak and mixed greens salad before setting the wine glass down, “thank you Becky,” he said and picked up a knife and fork.
“She must have cost you a few credits, huh?” he commented and cut into the soft cut of meat, “if I could make a suggestion, you should have spent the extra few thousand for her intrusion protection package. Any kid with a decent Netcom could have hacked into her.”
Giving Richard a little shrug he put the fork to his lips and took a big bite. He spent a second savoring the distinct taste of the Hikoland cattle steak before pointing the empty fork at Richard,
“speaking of which, don’t you think it’s a little pathetic to have an android as your companion? Why not go out and find yourself a living, breathing human being to be with?”
Richard stayed silent at that question and instead looked down at the table
with some embarrassment on his face at the question. He did not want to meet Xander’s piercing eyes. “I believe, though,” Xander continued while cutting another piece of meat, “that I know why you shy away from human interaction Mr. Flemming. Consciously or subconsciously you probably avoid any real and meaningful relationship because you consider yourself not worthy of one. You have done something that you disprove of and think others will hate you for it if they ever found out. Because of this secret, you feel that you cannot establish an emotional bond for fear that it would one day reveal itself.
“Please tell me if I’m wrong,” he gave Richard a little shrug and set his utensils down on the table before reaching over for another drink of the wine.
Xander finally pushed the plates in front of him away and reached over for his briefcase. As he moved his hand closer to the top of the metallic material a keypad projected above it. He entered the proper code to allow the case to unlock. Richard watched intently as the briefcase’s top slid open in two pieces. Reaching inside Xander pulled out a small, curved T shaped black object. He rolled it slowly between his fingers and looked over at the other man.
He
slid out of his chair and stood up, the whole time never taking his eyes of Richard, “now let us get back to the matter at hand.”
With the object in hand Xander began to slowly approach Richard, who was still secured to his chair by the highly effective gravity plate, “Mr. Flemming, I ask you again, how did you come up with the money needed to construct this habitat on Kolver Island?”
“That’s not my name…” Richard stuttered out while averting his eyes from Xander’s gaze, “I inherited a lot of money from my parents after they passed. I also make a good living, you know.”