A Murder in 2079 Read online

  A MURDER IN 2079

  Mehmet Ali YAZAN

  Copyright©2019 by Mehmet Ali Yazan

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are the work of the author’s imagination.

  Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is coincidental.

  This book is dedicated to my mother Aise Seniha Yazan, who is also an Isaac Asimov fan like me.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1- A MURDER CASE

  CHAPTER 2 INVESTIGATION

  CHAPTER 3-ASSASSINATION

  CHAPTER 4-GOING DOWN TO THE MINE

  CHAPTER 5- A NEW INVESTIGATION

  CHAPTER 6 - ANOTHER ACCIDENT

  CHAPTER 1- A MURDER CASE

  Harry Mortimer leaned back in his armchair, thanking God upon having finished the report he had been working on. The file they just resolved with his assistant Scott was about a case on Bruce Coston’s murder, a billionaire from Boston.

  As Mortimer was thinking about the case, suddenly the door opened, and his assistant Scott Yvensen appeared with a smile on his face. The Norwegian man was about 1.85 meters, a blond and cheerful young guy.

  “Hello Chief, I hope didn’t bother you?”

  “Of course not!” replied Mortimer. “I have just finished the report on the last case and was thinking about having a coffee. Would you rather?”

  “Sure,” said Scott, as Mortimer pressed a button on the table and loudly ordered, “Two cups of coffee.” A closet opened from the cupboard next to the table, and two cups of fresh coffee on a tray were stretched by a robot arm towards Mortimer as he added, “Unfortunately, you have to do with this Scott. We use the fake stuff here.”

  “It is odd that we are already in the year 2079 and still couldn’t solve this problem.” Meanwhile Scott sat on the armchair opposite the table and took a sip from the coffee.

  “Do you have any information about the last mission, Chief?”

  Mortimer was just taking the cup to his mouth as he paused, looking up at Scott and squinting. “Which mission?”

  “So, it is obvious that you don’t have an idea about the issue,” said Scott. “I talked with Principal Crucher about an hour ago. He was out of the office. He couldn’t reach you since your communication device was off. He called me and told that there was a murder case he was to appoint us.”

  Mortimer was both excited and bored. They had just closed a case and finished the reports. And while he was planning to take a break, his assistant was mentioning a new case.

  “What is this case about, tell me,” said Mortimer. Meanwhile, he settled in his armchair with the cup in his hands, staring at Scott.

  Scott too leaned back and told with an easy manner.

  “Another case of murder, yet this time the location is the Mine Colony of Icarus B that revolves around Alpha Centauri, having been opened to operation and settlement for only fifteen years.” Startled Mortimer straightened up. They had been to space with Scott for solving a murder at the Bologna Space Hotel that revolved around the Earth, but it was different then. The mine planet Scott was talking about was circling around the orbit of the Alpha Centauri, which was four and a half light years away from the Earth. This meant that to solve the murder, they had to take a space journey faster than the light. Even this could stick a painful shrink in Mortimer’s six-packs.

  Mortimer took a deep breath, stroking his black hair with both hands. Faint anxiety sparkled in his brown eyes. His angled face, with slightly distinct cheekbones, tightened.

  From his appearance, Scott understood what the chief was feeling. Intending to soothe him he said, “Don’t worry Chief, they say you feel the leap very slightly while exceeding the speed of light. Like only a sense of tingle on your fingertips throughout your whole body, and that’s all.”

  Wanting to close the issue, Mortimer asked, “Who was the victim? Was the weapon found?”

  Scott answered, “Even better Chief, we know the murderer.”

  Mortimer was now astonished.

  “Do you? What do you mean? If the local police had already solved the case, why need for us?”

  Scott waited to give an answer until finally, Mortimer’s questions ended: “And that is the interesting part, Chief. The murderer is known, yet the instigator is still in question; and that is why the local police had called on the UN Space Police Department.”

  These devious answers were getting to irritate Mortimer. “Come to the point, Scott,” he said.

  Scott thought it wouldn’t be good to bother his Chief more and continued his words with a grin on his face, “All right Chief, don’t get mad. The victim is chief of robot-workers in the mine, Bryan Gaust. No particular connection has been found yet. By the way, I assume you know that these chiefs of robot-workers are assigned as controllers over the robots that used instead of humans in mining?” Scott went on as Mortimer nodded. “But, the murderer is not an ordinary person, it is a robot!” The last words came with specific emphasis. As soon as he finished, Scott saw the effect on Mortimer’s face as he expected. “What? A robot? Holy God, what kind of a robot?”

  Scott explained, “An ordinary, humanoid model like the others, developed for mining.”

  “So, how do we know that it is the murderer?”

  “Because the security cameras recorded everything, Chief.”

  When Mortimer asked, “Do we have this record right now?” Scott took out a small holo-cube from his pocket, and said, “I can play it outright Chief if you want,” placing the cube into the holographic player on the table.

  Now they were watching the three-dimensional image reflecting from the holo-cube, in which a robot, aiming a laser gun in its hand against somebody sitting on the table in his room, was about to shoot. The body of the robot was yellow. On the front part, the serial number and the name of the mine where it worked were indicated.

  The man Mortimer was assumed to be in his mid-forties, with slight grey on his hair above his whiskers, looked at the robot in disbelief.

  “No, don’t! Don’t do it!” he shouted. The robot pulled the trigger and the victim collapsed on the table with a dreadful scream. He was dead the moment he hit the table, smoke rising from his body. The ray set to max pierced through his chest, coming out his back and melted the wall behind him.

  After a short hesitation, the robot took a few steps towards the corpse, then stood still.

  Taking the cube out, Scott turned to Mortimer and said, “As you see Chief, the murderer is obvious.”

  Mortimer replied, “But the instigator is not. Supposing the robot cannot execute the murder autonomously, and that Asimov’s first law would hinder it, you think that someone else, maybe an expert on robotics, would have been included in the case, right?”

  “Definitely, Chief.”

  “It’s clear the robot was programmed to think the victim was not human. Asimov’s first rule would of kicked in otherwise, however, due to it’s hesitation after it must of recognized what it did. Seems the programmar forgot to teach it everything.”

  Scott listened to his chief in great admiration. “Chief, I think I should call you Sherlock Mortimer.”

  Waving the compliment away, Mortimer asked, “But where did the robot find the gun?”

  “I told you everything I know, Chief,” replied Scott. “We’ll have the details from the local police and the robotics expert Doctor Franz Abenhauer when we get there.”

 
Mentioning the space travel again put strain over Mortimer’s nerves. “When do we set off?” he asked.

  “According to the director, we will be on a routine transport from New York Space Port to the planet at 9 am. It’s not as comfortable as a travel ship but it won’t take long. All local police forces will be at our service during the investigation process.”

  Mortimer said, “Fine,” and threw a glance at the old-style digital watch on his table. It was 6 am. They had only three hours for the journey and he was not ready yet.

  “Damn it! I hate that the director tells me last minute about trips.” Grumbling, Mortimer got up with Scott as they walked away from the office together.

  Taking the office car, they visited Mortimer’s house, and picked up his things. Meanwhile, Mortimer left a brief message through the communication device since his wife and son were out shopping. After hitting Scott’s house to pick up his things before setting off towards the New York Spaceport.

  The drive took nearly half an hour. They completed the required official procedures and by air jet went to the transition shuttle.

  After the papers were checked and signed, Scott and Mortimer got on the shuttle. Mortimer didn’t like the outer appearance of the vehicle, a standard cargo shuttle with a scalene frame. It was standing on four landing gears. At both sides three fair-sized portholes were located.

  “It is impossible to view outside from these portholes,” thought Mortimer. But seeing the inside of the shuttle, his reluctance grew. The interior of shuttle was furnished simply. The standard number of six armchairs were increased to eight. They were of leather-upholstered, the cozy kind. Several control switches on the armbands were standing out. However, this didn’t help Mortimer feel better.

  At the gate, the Shuttle Commander Peter Nash in his blue colored United Nations uniform greeted them. On the shoulders of the uniform stood a single-starred sign indicating his rank as a captain.

  “Welcome detective. I am Peter Nash, the shuttle commander, and this is my crew.” The commander pointed at the five people, as he introduced himself. All nodded and continued their work. As Mortimer and Scott replied in the same way, Nash showed them a place to sit. As the detectives settled in their armchairs, Nash had begun to give some information about the journey.

  “The trip will take around two hours including the take-off and landing, thanks to our scientists and engineers who invented the cross-light speed motor. Interstellar journey would never be possible without them. After take-off, it will take about twelve minutes to achieve the appropriate coordinates for the leap. You will not feel so much during the leap, so don’t worry.

  Upon the leap, we will reach Icarus B, on the orbit of Alpha Centauri, for about an hour. Actually, we can also get closer, but according to the International Leap Contract determined by the UN Space Agency, we should maintain this distance for security. Although the computers perform this leap after very delicate calculations on the subject, due to the simplest mistake, we could find ourselves ripped off on another planet or star.”

  While listening to Nash, Mortimer was looking around. The place where they were sitting was the control part of the shuttle; a large room with special task consoles for all crew. This part was separated from the back through a sliding door.

  “This should be the cargo section,” thought Mortimer. Meanwhile, Nash had finished his words and asked detectives if they had questions. Scott said he hadn’t, nor had Mortimer. Then, Nash said, “Well, so we are taking off,” and gave the order to the pilot assigned to direct the shuttle. Taking the order, the pilot pressed at a button on the console in front of him and fired the magnetic motors.

  The shuttle took off quietly. Ascending a few meters, the landing gears packed up and entered the body. After this process was completed, the pilot pushed the lever beside him forward, and pulled up on the joystick in front of him, elevating the advancing shuttle.

  The ship went into space within a few minutes. Nash said, “Now we’ll proceed towards the coordinates where the leap is going to take place. It shall take ten minutes,” and entering the required coordinates, the shuttle was pushed on. They had reached the point of leap just right. As he said, “We’ll be leaping in two minutes,” Mortimer and Scott suddenly felt a slight swelling within themselves. This feeling lasted for some seconds, and then passed. Discovering that the leap had taken place, Mortimer turned to Nash in frustration and asked: “You said it will take two minutes but didn’t warn us before it happened. Why?”

  With a smile out of embarrassment, Nash replied “Sorry about that, Detective Mortimer. If I had told you the exact time, you’d be quite nervous. I had gathered from your face that you were already so and didn’t want to torture you more.”

  “Well, no problem,” replied Mortimer. As Nash said, “I can show you the view if you want,” both detectives nodded. Afterwards, Nash had the main monitor in front opened by his order. There stood the Alpha Centauri star system before them. One of it a red-dwarf, and the other two consisting of orange and yellow sun-like stars, the ternary Alpha Centauri system had five planets revolving around it. Among these, only the planet Icarus B, which they were about to arrive, was suitable for settlement, and it was turned into a development area for mining and colonization, within a short time.

  Mortimer and Scott were watching the view in admiration. The two sun-like stars of the system were full-bright shining in front. The other star that was a red –dwarf –which was also called Proxima Centauri- was further away from the other two, barely distinguishable. The fact that it was seven times dimmer than the Sun had a great effect on this.

  Mortimer murmured, “Very beautiful,” affirmed by Scott’s admiration, “So it is!” Nash and his crew were continuing their routine tasks as they were already used to the view. Nash said, “Now we are setting our course towards the planet. I request you to keep seated and fasten your seatbelts, because we’ll accelerate the shuttle to the maximum thrust speed of the standard progress. With this speed, we’ll arrive at the planet within an hour. Otherwise, our arrival will be late, which may lead to delays in our program.”

  All the crew and detectives settled into their seats and fastened their belts. Ensuring that everyone was ready, Nash ordered the motors to work in full speed. With the fire of the launchers, the shuttle quickly rushed forward. While the standard launchers were reaching to their maximum speed, Mortimer realized there was not much to fear though. Upon the firing, he had felt a slight push backwards, and that was all.

  After about an hour’s journey, the shuttle started to descent towards Icarus B. The planet was slightly bigger than the Earth, a class M planet –categorized as habitable. As the atmosphere was respirable and the plant cover had similar features with that of Earth, the planet was considered appropriate for colonization. When the shuttle descended below the clouds, a sea appeared before them, looking very much like on Earth. After flying over the sea for around five minutes, they arrived at a piece of land with a modern city, which they gathered to be uncrowded. When they descended more towards the city, Mortimer saw that the buildings were mostly two or three stored constructions, surrounded with gardens. What caught their attention most about the planet was that the element Bitronium, which provided the energy for the leaps in space, was abundant here. Therefore, the United Nations had decided the colonization to begin with mining operations accompanied by human settlement.

  With this aim, about three hundred human-like robots, and to control them, ten robot-worker chiefs and their families were sent. Along with them five metallurgy and three robotic experts were also sent to the planet. All the members of this crew were chosen among the volunteers since the planet was being opened for settlement for the first time.

  Except for the technical staff, a 30 thousand- population was sent for the colonization.

  After a short flight over the city, they arrived at the space station. This was a small harbor, capable of allowing at the utmost three shuttles to launch simultaneously according to M
ortimer’s estimation. At the south end of the square, there was the single-story control tower. In front of it, a magnetic jet and two people were standing out.

  After the shuttle quietly landed, Scott and Mortimer said goodbye to the crew by shaking their hands and got out of the shuttle. Michael Westhouse, the director of the colony in the landing field, welcomed them. There was an armed guard next to him. He was wearing a blue uniform with a sun badge on his left chest. The two-star symbol on his collar indicated that he was a senior manager of the United Nations Space Division. Westhouse, in his 50s, had a wide forehead and a slightly circular face. A thin beard, which seemed placed later his face, circled his chin throughout. As Westhouse was shaking the detective’s hands “Welcome, gentlemen, my name is Michael Westhouse, the director of the colony. I hope you’ve had a good trip,” he said and showed them the vehicle they will be riding. Telling them “We are glad to be here”, after shaking hands with Westhouse they got on the magneto-jet, of which doors were opening upwards; they moved towards the administration building.

  When they were seated in the rear, Westhouse was sitting in the front.

  Westhouse turned his head to the rear and said, “Mr. Detectives, I know you’re tired, but I’m going to ask you to drop by my office first. Robots will take your belongings to your rooms after we’ve finished our conversation. Our robotics expert and security guards are waiting for us now if you don’t mind of course?”

  Mortimer said, “Not a problem, Mr. Westhouse. I can’t even say we’re too tired, huh, Scott?”

  He turned his face toward Scott when he said that.

  “You bet, Chief. I’m not too tired either. I think it’s better to start right away,” said Scott

  “Nice, very nice,” West Westhouse said in a satisfied way. Mortimer continued, “There’s only one point, Mr. Westhouse. You said there was a robotics expert at the meeting. I hope you’re aware this expert is the prime suspect because a robot committed the murder.” Westhouse replied by smiling “Don’t worry, Detective. The expert who will join the meeting was sent by the UN Robotics Department. The experts at the time of the murder were interrogated by local security units and are now under custody.”