Interlude - Trouble at Katalas

The star-port of Katalas was bustling as always. A trading hub for the half-dozen or so species that occupied the nearby systems, it formed the spoke of a wheel of trade having as it did the easiest weave-jump route towards the majority of the galaxy. Oh, sure, there were always traders taking the riskier routes to avoid the port’s tax - the whole system had been given over to ensuring any trade that came through paid it’s share into the orbital station - but they were few and their cargoes usually small and illicit. No heavy mining barges or food transports would take routes that skirted the edges of gravity wells, where their bulk could prove lethal. So here there were the traders, merchants seeking to buy and sell in order to move goods further in or out of the cluster, and of course those looking for passage elsewhere. Within that hustle and fuss, there was crime, obviously; no group of merchants ever managed to avoid it. And because there was crime, there were those who’s job it was to enforce such laws as the system had.

Detective Chief Investigator Rakh sat back on his hind-paws and sighed. “This is what, the third one this month?” He asked, turning to his assistant who was busily taking photographs of the body. “Fourth, if we include the Thossa stripper although you said you weren’t sure if that one was linked, chief.” The younger man said, not taking his eyes of his camera. “Right. Three, possibly four bodies, no obvious signs of external trauma on the front and a single puncture wound on the back causing fatal damage to their vital organs. Any connection between the victims?” As he asked that, a tall figure stepped forward from the line of officers who were busily holding the general station traffic back from this alleyway. “None that we can find, sir. All dead in different locations - a penthouse, an alleyway, a restaurant bathroom and a strip club - no witnesses, and no known links between the victims. Only thing we do know is that the footage from any nearby cameras becomes static for a moment, then cuts to showing the bodies.”

Rakh shook his head. “Run a check to see if it’s radiation causing the static would you Sergeant? We’ve either got an assassin taking out people with no apparent links to one another which begs the question of why, or we’ve got a very dangerous serial killer on the loose. I’d like to reassure myself that it’s technological issues taking out those cameras and not something worse.” His assistant looked up at that. “Something worse than **** sir?” Rakh grimaced. “I read something once about a killer that took out a dozen or so people on one of our home world’s orbitals seemingly at random years ago then vanished. Silicate life form, the report theorized given the lack of any biological evidence. The most notable thing about it was what happened when the killer vanished. The DCI in charge thought they’d tracked down the hideout; when they busted in however all they found was an empty room - oh, and enough radiation trailing from there to the spaceport that the entire station had to be evacuated and the officers involved spent six months in bio-therapy pods to repair the cellular damage.”

The assembled officers looked at the body in front of them and then back at their chief. “I’ll… I’ll run along to the station and get checking on that right away, sir” said the sergeant at last, already edging away from the group before turning to run. Rakh watched him go, then sighed. “Get this cleared up. I’ll go report the incident to the governor just in case it turns out to be the same perp.” Then, talking quieter and largely to himself as he strode off he added “If it’s the same person and they’re here though… I wonder if that means they’re heading out of our little cluster? Gods, if we can’t catch them I really hope so.”