Звездопад / Starfall: Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Camrad_RIP 30.06.23 в 15:27

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Camrad_RIP 30.06.23 в 15:28

"It's cold." Alex exhaled, and the wicked prickly wind greedily snatched away the white wisps of his breath, playing with them among the sparse scarlet drops of stars and technical lights under the dark metallic skies. All that remained of the real sky was a bright streak somewhere near the horizon. Underfoot, under the humming bars covered with frost, floated scraps of clouds, golden at the edges, the rays of the sun left behind the iron skies.

Camrad_RIP 30.06.23 в 17:59

The communications tower resembled a giant nail hammered into the planet, and they were below the base of the nail's hat, obscuring the sky, on a small technical platform, ten paces across, made of metal grids.

Camrad_RIP 30.06.23 в 18:00

// It's not a good place to walk. Alex walked cautiously to the edge of the platform, stopping within a couple of steps of the low railing, and looked down to see where he'd fallen. "But a good place to die.

Camrad_RIP 30.06.23 в 18:01

Through the gaps in the clouds, the corpse lying nearly a mile below resembled a tiny red blotch because of the color of the clothes mostly. // "But only mostly."

Camrad_RIP 30.06.23 в 18:02

There were plenty of other red organics at the scene of death, too.

Camrad_RIP 30.06.23 в 18:02

He turned to the attendant and clarified:

Camrad_RIP 30.06.23 в 18:03

"It's pretty cold, and you said possible traces were probably destroyed by heat."

Camrad_RIP 30.06.23 в 18:04

"Quite right, Your Lordship." The policeman was wearing a breathing mask, and his voice sounded muffled and unclear. "At times of heavy load, during the evening peak, the tower supports millions of connections at a time and gets considerably hotter-above the denaturation temperature of proteins and certainly well above the melting temperature of the water. Therefore, all traces in the frost the deceased or anyone else might have left behind is destroyed in the first evening peak - that is, within fifteen minutes of the estimated time of death."

Camrad_RIP 30.06.23 в 18:05

"It was a lucky coincidence..." Alex chuckled, looking down at the golden clouds. It was a little creepy because of the height, and the very low railing only encouraged the silly thought, // "You're going to fall.

Camrad_RIP 30.06.23 в 18:06

"Is it just me, or is the railing dangerously low?" he complained aloud. "Below hip level, you could accidentally fall off. Is there any technical necessity for such a height?"

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 16:58

"It's more of a convention, Your Lordship," replied the police forensic officer who accompanied him. "Humans aren't supposed to be here, and droids have no use for railings. As for this case, there is no conclusion yet, and it is not for me to make one, but it is unlikely that the Duke of Assaro fall down by accident."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:00

The policeman was quite right. He and the police, in general, were absolutely unqualified to investigate the murder of a titled nobleman. When the droids found the corpse a day and a half after the death, it was just a corpse, and to the police squad arrived, it was just a corpse of an expensively dressed old man. And to the forensic scientist who had time to arrive, it was just a corpse, significantly damaged by the fall and three cycles of heating. It was not until later, after identification, almost two days after death, that the corpse was no longer just a corpse. He became the corpse of Baron Assaro, or the corpse of his lordship the Duke of Assaro, in imperial parlance. A member of the Privy Council of the Great House of Melato and in fact the head of Melatian diplomacy. At this point, the corpse was no longer a police problem but a problem for Alex:

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:04

// "Of which I was literally informed by his imperial majesty. In a very direct way." - The emperor was mildly displeased that a titled nobleman had died while serving the emperor. And very, very much wanted to know how it could have happened. -"A perfectly understandable wish. Except that the performer, absolutely awful."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:05

It wasn't that he personally had to find out everything, but rather create an investigative team and make sure it worked honestly and without bias, but that didn't make things much better.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:08

// There will be a lot of attention to this case and from His Majesty and not only. It's unlikely we'll find anything, and I'm guilty. - Once again, Alex came to a disappointing conclusion.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:09

// You set me up, Baron, you set me up. - He thought, looking down at the scene of the fall and absently tapping his foot on the frosted bars of the floor: "Why wasn't he arrested before? He'd be alive now. Probably."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:10

There were clouds below, the glow of the sun on the metal of the city, and a larger platform a level below, where the flyer in which the dead man had arrived stood. It was a black, shiny, very expensive, small, two-seat, sports-type vehicle: // "Not quite the vehicle you'd expect from a ninety-seven-year-old man, but everyone has their tastes.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:11

The flyer had stood untouched for two days with the key on the dashboard. This is further evidence that no one was here, and if they were, they weren't interested in the money.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:12

"Then why do you think he fell from here?" Alex temporarily stopped his pensive contemplation and looked again at the forensic scientist. "If there's no sign of him? His flyer is on the platform below."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:14

"After analyzing possible variants of the body's fall, the analytical machines assumed that the fall started from here." The forensic scientist shrugged his shoulders. "But that's just a guess."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:16

"Well, thanks for the tour." Alex bowed his head gratefully and beckoned to his guards. "Let's go downstairs."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:16

After tapping his feet on the rumbling lattice stairs and descending to the landing below, he bid farewell to the policeman and headed first to his bot hanging at the very edge, away from the evidence, the baron's flyer.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:18

"How are you feeling, Lady Pell?" He asked her as he finally entered the warm salon, for he had been chilling for a few minutes on the platform.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:19

"Forgive me, Lord Cassard." In a faint voice, a still-pale Nadine asked. "I reacted like a child."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:19

"There's nothing to apologize for." Alex replied sincerely. "I almost felt sick to my stomach myself."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:20

The sight and, most importantly, the smell of a corpse that fell from a great height and then lay there for two days after going through several cycles of heating - would make anyone sick.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:27

"I didn't expect such a reaction." Nadina continued. "I was told the real body is in the morgue, and it's just a hologram, but the view...and the smell. Why are they simulating the smell?" She asked with such genuine resentment in her voice that even Alex felt a little guilty.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:29

"The body is in the morgue, but blood and tissue fragments are scattered all over the site. They smell. In fact, given the height from which he fell, I'm surprised he didn't get smeared more."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:30

"He didn't mean what he said about the tissue fragments," Nadine paled more than ever and covered her mouth with her palm, and took deep breaths:

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:31

"Don't. I'm fine." She said quickly, seeing Alex reaching for her communicator. "Just a mild seizure."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:33

The first time she saw the baron's corpse, Nadine vomited and became so dizzy that she could not stand on her feet. Luckily there were medics in Alex's escort group.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:33

"After a certain height..." Finally, she said without stopping her breathing exercises. "The human body can no longer accelerate anymore."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:35

"Indeed. I didn't even think of that." A little embarrassed, Alex admitted. "It turns out that height only affects the time of fall..."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:38

"Twelve seconds," Nadine said, breathing deeply and looking somewhere in the space in front of her. "I counted. He was falling for twelve seconds. Twelve seconds, he was alive, and he knew he was doomed. A horrible death." Quietly she said. "He was conscious, wasn't he?"

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:51

"It's unknown." Alex shrugged. "They didn't find anything in the blood, but it's been a long time. The cops told me: if he was stunned with a paralyzer, for example, there's no trace of it now."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:52

"Do they still think it's not suicide?"

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:53

"Anything's possible." He stretched, raising his eyes to the ceiling thoughtfully. "But forensics found injuries on the Baron's body unrelated to the fall, traces of multiple blows, abrasions, and hematomas."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:54

"You mean he was also beaten?" Nadine interrogated in a muffled voice, covering her face with her palm.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:54

"Well, in theory, he could have gotten these injuries somewhere else and then come here, for some reason choosing his route in a way that would make it as difficult as possible to track him down and get himself killed. But most likely, yes. He was beaten, or it's a struggle with the killer. Which could have been one. It doesn't take much strength to handle an old man. Probably."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:57

"It's awful," Nadine repeated. "We saw him just four days ago, and now he's dead."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:58

"More than once, I've thought, I wish they'd arrested him then, too," Alex admitted with a wry smile, "but it seems that he who is destined to crash will not be arrested."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 17:59

Baron Assaro was one of the three Melatians who sat on the level below as he and Nadina waited for the arrival ceremony to begin, and he was the only one of the three who was not arrested. // Unfortunately.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 18:00

"Maybe that's why he wasn't arrested." Quietly, Nadine said, looking at Alex meaningfully. "What could he have crashed later?"

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 18:10

"His Majesty was very annoyed by this death and insisted in every way that I get to the bottom of it." Alex confidently parried the conspiratorial innuendos.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 18:11

"Yes, but it's you, the one with the least experience, who's going to get it. Lady Pell repeated the call, striking a sore spot. Alex had caught himself several times, thinking this was all too much of a setup.

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 18:12

// And the baron's death itself, one hundred percent, has something to do with the attempts on my life and the attempt to organize a rebellion. He thought unhappily, answering only out loud:

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 18:13

"I hope you're wrong Lady Pell. That's all I can do, hope."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 18:14

"I'm sorry." Lady Pell smiled faintly. "I didn't mean to upset you. It's just that it all seems so suspicious."

Camrad_RIP 03.07.23 в 18:14