Page 16 of Cops in Space
Pencil in hand, Dad asked hopefully,“Do we have a witness?”
“Don’t know.
Dad scowled.“A description of the suspects?”
“The thieves killed the soldiers guarding the ship.”Kaelen took a laser pistol off the wall and handed it to me.
I slid it into my holster.“Please tell me they had security cameras.”
“Unknown,”Kaelen declared.
Dad tapped the notepad against his leg in exasperation.“How long ago did this happen?”
“Forty minutes,”Kaelen replied.
A sigh broke from me.“They could be halfway across the galaxy by now.”
“There was only enough fuel for a test run,”Kaelen answered.
His voice was a tad sarcastic as Dad queried,“And how far is that? Out of the solar system, all the way to Tanith or just a jaunt around the moon?”
“They did not say, but I will find out.”Using two fingers,Kaelen typed away on his communications bracelet’s keypad.
“A direction would be really helpful in setting up a grid search,”I commented dryly.
A muscle in dad’s jaw twitched.“No wonder the Shadow Thieves Guild is always robbing them blind.”
“We need to hire a couple of dispatchers who know what questions to ask.”
Dad nodded.“I’ll add that to the to-do list.”He jotted it down on his notepad.
Jaxor bounced on the bed and held out his arms.“Momma!”
I picked him up.“Crap. We need someone to watch the kid.”
Xylar zoomed into the room and took the baby from me.“Jaxor comes with us.”He fastened an armor belt around his son and triggered it. The armor covered the baby from head-to-toe.
To my surprise, Jaxor gurgled happily. Dang, he liked it.“Bringing a baby to a crime scene isn’t a good idea?”
“Askole mothers do not leave their children, ever.”Xylar put Jaxor into an armored baby carrier and attached it to my back.
Dang, the little guy, was rapidly putting on weight. I peered over my shoulder as Jaxor grabbed my ponytail.“On Earth, we don’t take our babies into battle.”
“You are no longer on Earth,”Xylar shot back.
Dad activated his armor.“Relax, we’re just processing a crime scene. The suspects are long gone.”
“As bad as the Alliance’s security was, they could still be in the area, laughing their asses off.”I stuffed bottles of milk and diapers in my side pockets.
Uncle Zarek teleported into the room and handed out communication bracelets.“These have been modified to aid in processing a crime scene. You can collect samples with a simple tap of this icon.”Uncle Zarek touched a star symbol.“The scanners can analyze everything from fingerprints to blood types to chemicals and air samples.”
“Can we track suspects and their escape vehicles with this and if so, how far?”Dad fastened the bracelet on his left wrist.
A holographic map of the galaxy appeared mid-air. “You can track them anywhere in the galaxy except the Bamberger asteroid belt.”With a tap on his keypad, Uncle Zarek highlighted a doughnut-shaped section of space filled with all shapes and sizes of asteroids.“The intense radiation from the dwarf planet Gonggong distorts our sensor readings.”
Xylar bared his teeth in a gruesome smile.“The Sasnomm used Gonggong as a base after the Tai-Kok destroyed their world.”
“How long did it take for the radiation to kill them?”Call me curious.
