Begin Part VI
	Ratislav was jogging down the hall on deck twelve when one of the
doors opened and Ramsey McEwen stepped out into the hall and flagged him
over. Slowing to a stop he flexed his arms and legs while getting his breath
and heart under control.
	"What seems to be the problem Mister McEwen? Anything I can do to
help?"
	"Well it's about this noise in one of the walls." Ramsey looked as if
he was about to show Ratislav inside when he stopped as if something had just
occurred to him. "I can see that you're an officer but how did you know my
name? I haven't exactly been yelling it from the mountain tops."
	Ratislav smiled as he spoke:
	"You're pretty good, I am an officer. I knew you as soon as you came
aboard because I make it my business to know about new arrivals. That and I
read the work that you and your wife published when you worked in the
Kurdistan uprising 2109. Of course I didn't actually read it until years
later but I learned a lot about light infantry tactics and using mountains to
the advantage of armored troops and airborne cavalry."
	"You must have read that quite carefully, most people wouldn't have
realized the importance of combining the mobility of airborne units with the
firepower of armored troops." The professor smiled at the thought, "Anyway,
my problem is that there is the high pitched sound rather like a bird call
coming from the wall and it has totally ruined my and my wife's sleep. Would
you mind coming in and taking a look."
	"Professor I would be honored to help you out."
	Stepping inside, Ratislav could see that the other Professor McEwen
was elsewhere but she and her husband had combined for a substantial amount
of luggage. There was not much in the way of furniture or art works but that
was to be expected from people who had only taken the room the day before.
Once inside Ratislav could hear the bird call too, and almost immediately
realize it was coming from behind the wall in the direction of the outer
hull.
	"What it sounds like, professor, to me. Is that one of the ships high
tension lines, probably either power or communication is loose." Moving to
the wall he took out a tool kit he kept in his hip pack and look for a
certain spot. "If I can get a panel out we can take a look and see why this
wire got the wiggle that's driving you crazy." Finding the spot, he picked a
screwdriver and removed the screws that held the panel in and the laid the
panel on the floor next to him.
	Sticking his head in the wall he poked a flashlight around and looked
to see where the noise was coming from. It struck him as odd that the usual
insulation used to fill the space between the wall of the guest's quarters
and the outer hull appeared to missing. In fact it looked like the stuff was
gone from the room below and starting to collapse in the space corresponding
room next door, too.
	"Mr. McEwen, don't worry about a thing, I'll have someone from
maintenance swing by and fill this space back in as soon as they can. It
should be done by tonight at the latest." Ramsey thanked him profusely as
Ratislav stepped outside, just as middie Jason Morris was walking by on his
way to the mag-lev. "Middie come with me. I think we might want to pay a
visit to Mr. Setzer's cabin and see how he has been faring."
	"What are you talking about, Lieutenant? Is there something wrong?"
Morris was confused but he knew better than to question a superior officer
too much. Ratislav probably wanted to play some joke on him or something.
Most people would guess that Ratislav had any sense of humor at all, but
Morris knew better than that. He knew it was the sadistic kind of humor found
only in people who can think in italics at will.
	"Morris, I want you to note I have activated the ships recording
device. We are outside the quarters of Mr. Setzer, and I have a feeling that
whatever we find inside should be rather enlightening. Do you understand?"
Morris nodded in confusion as Ratislav opened his hip pack again and took out
a small swipe card he slid through the door's swipe lock. Stepping up to the
door, Ratislav looked into the room without actually stepping inside. "Well,
this isn't quite what I was expecting."
	Morris leaned around him:
	"Oh, shit, sir." He could see Brian Setzer, one of earth's richest
men, lying on the floor in a puddle of blood with a combat knife sticking out
of his chest. "Is he dead, Ratislav?"
	"Well, if he isn't, Jason, then he is awfully calm about that."
	"What do we do now?"
	"In this case, things are pretty cut and dry. First we call the
Captain down, the we notify sick bay to prep for an autopsy and finally we
lock all of the guests in their quarters." Ratislav closed the door to the
room and stepped to the intercom next to it. "You run down to sick bay and
tell Doctor Rhodes what we found, I'll call the captain." Jason nodded and
ran for the mag-lev, which was just down the hall. Ratislav watched him go
and then put an emergency call to Captain Henry in his quarters.
	"Captain Henry, sir. We have a problem, it would appear that Mister
Setzer is dead and it would definitely have to be murder." When Henry heard
the word murder, he shut off the music he was listening to, and focused a
good deal harder on what O'Muirdagh was saying.
	"Are you certain it was murder. What gave you conclusive proof of
cause of death? People have been known to make mistakes about this sort of
thing."
	"Sir, when I opened the door to Mr. Setzer's room the cause of death
was immediately obvious. It was a group of big damn holes in his chest. I can
say murder because you don't stab yourself six or seven times and then manage
to leave the weapon, a knife, leaving upright in your chest. All the while
landing on your back."
	"I do hope you have maintained the sanctity of the crime scene. Where
are you know?"
	"I am right outside of the door to the room. After Midshipman Morris
and I opened the room and found the body, we closed it right away and I sent
him down to the sickbay to tell them to get ready. My next move would have
been to lock all of the guests into their quarters."
	"Good work, Lieutenant. I'll be down in a moment until then round up
the guests and keep everyone out of that room." Henry signed off and quickly
went to get on his uniform while Ratislav moved down the hall to make sure
all of the guests were in their rooms.

	By the time that O'Muirdagh got back to the door to the murder scene
Captain Henry was already there punching at the keys on the door lock.
Beside him were the XO of the ship Jonathan Xanatos, and the Chief of
Security Rich Konig, neither looked very amused. Ratislav got to the group
and gave a near perfect salute to the Captain.
	Ratislav spoke with the perfect subordinate tone:
	"Allow me, sir. I think I might be able to get it open." Taking out
the swipe card he used earlier, he put it through the lock again and the door
swished open. "I was careful to make sure that the middie and I didn't go in
or touch anything and to make sure nobody else could either."
	Captain Henry was rather annoyed:
	"That's very thoughtful of you Lieutenant but next time find a way
that lets your superior officers get into the room. Since you're here, I
think it is rather important that this be put on the fast track, so I will
lay some simple ground rules. When Commander O'Bannon was aboard she had
nothing but good things to say about you, so we will think of this as a sort
of way to redemption by following the book for once, do you understand?"
	"Yes, sir." Ratislav answered without hesitation, although he was
rather confused by the drift the Captain was taking.
	"Good, because this is how this is going to work. I will continue to
run this ship and keep the media from finding out anything is wrong aboard
the Normandy. Commander Xanatos will coordinate the repair of Mr. Setzer's
vessel so it can be moved to another ship as soon as possible, and Chief
Konig will dig up everything he can on our remaining guests." Captain Henry
paused at this point for dramatic effect, and it was, Ratislav was damn near
shaking to find what he had to do in all this. "You, Lieutenant, will conduct
the investigation into the death of the departed Mister Setzer. Normally I
would have given this duty to either Chief Konig or Commander Xanatos,
however both are rather busy. Of course there is also Lieutenant Commander
Hobbes, but he is still trying to bring Gamma squad up to speed after that
little fiasco on Asteroid Bravo-Hotel-Three-One-Niner. Oddly enough Commander
O'Bannon did mention that if someone were ever needed for some sort of
investigation, that you would be the perfect person for the job. If it were
not for the fact that she said this in private than I would be forced to say
that you planned this little fiasco."
	"I'll get right on it, sir" Ratislav saluted again.
	Captain Henry smiled and nodded. "Very good, Lieutenant. Gentleman,
you are dismissed. You had better get moving to get this taken care of."
Ratislav turned had taken only two steps when Captain Henry called out. "Oh,
and Lieutenant, why don't you bring Midshipman Morris along with you, he
should a lot of experience from this." Ratislav saluted again to Henry,
before the captain walked off to get back to the bridge.

	Ratislav knocked on Jason's door and waited for him to come to the
door while trying to think of a way to explain this that didn't make him
sound like an ass. The door slid open and for a second Jason and Ratislav
just stared until Ratislav made a startling realization. He really have
didn't have a clue on how to come out of this with out looking like a fool.
	"Can I help you, sir?"
	"Middie, it looks like you'll be sticking with me for a while. The
Captain told me to investigate the murder, and I'm supposed to take you
along. According to the him, you will get lots of experience from this,
probably how to control yourself and keep from throwing up in ugly
situations."
	"Where do we go first, sir?" Jason was thrilled to do something
besides just sit around or be tour guide to a couple of civvies.
	"We go to the scene of the crime because things start there and they
end there." Ratislav waited for Jason to get ready then led him up to deck
eight. On the way he gave him a quick lesson on what he knew of detective
procedures like not touching anything without gloves and always thinking
about the why not just the how and the what. Once there he asked Jason to
just look around.
	Jason tried to look around but he was distracted as Ratislav sort of
crept around the room never stepping on the bloodstain in the rug. Here and
there he would sniff the air, and then every so often he would stop and
stare at the wall opposite the door to the room. Jason did notice some things
like how there was too much blood for a suicide, and of course people usually
kill themselves in bed or at least in the bathroom.
	Apparently Mister Setzer had had the bad taste to piss of someone
rather seriously and come down with a permanent case of lack of heartbeat.
The word from Dr. Rhodes in sick bay was that Setzer had been dead for
something like eleven hours which put death around ten o'clock. Ratislav
decided he had seen enough for now, and took Jason down to the ship's morgue.
	Ratislav got to Sickbay and headed straight for the compartment where
the corpses were kept but then had to wait for Dr. Rhodes to key open the
drawer. Rhodes opened the drawer and pulled out the tray to reveal a body
covered with a white sheet.
	"You ready for this middie?" Ratislav almost smirked because he knew
that even when someone said they were ready for something, in a case like
this they almost never were. He remembered the first time he had seen a
corpse, he hadn't actually thrown up but it had riddled his thoughts for a
long time afterwards.
	Rhodes pulled the sheet back to reveal the corpse of Brian Setzer.
The body had obviously seen better days, but from the condition of the body
that wouldn't have been hard. Now that the body had been frozen it was easy
to see each individual wound in the chest, it was as if someone had gone mad
with the combat knife. With the blood cleaned away that instead of the six or
seven wounds he had first guessed that there were actually closer to twenty
or twenty-five different stab marks. To make it worse, Ratislav hadn't taken
a close look at Setzer's face before, now he could see the broken nose, the
slash marks down one cheek, and where the murderer had put the point of the
knife through one eyelid. Even Ratislav was shaken by how sadistic a person
would have to be to commit a crime like this.
	He was about to say something to Morris when he froze, as a new
though occurred to him, something that struck him right in the core of his
being. No pirate would ever go this far, this was the work of someone gone
right through insanity and out the other side. A person who had killed once
and could easily kill again without a thought, but worst of all a killer who
was still on board the Normandy. The thought passed and Ratislav turned to
see Morris as pale as a ghost and a little shaky but still and standing. Good
for him, Ratislav thought, he'll do fine if he can get this close and not
lose his cool.
	Ratislav pulled the sheet back over the body and nodded to the
doctor. "Thanks, doc. Let's go middie, we need to talk to Konig and see if he
got anything on the guests back from earth." Ratislav and Morris worked their
way up to Konig's officer not knowing that time was already working against
them.

	Nunez was once again in the comm. room with Kristy when the
information Konig was waiting for arrived on the relay from earth. Kristy had
stepped out for a moment, so Tomas took the chance to print out a second copy
of all the biographies. When Kristy got back, Tomas gave an excuse about
having other duties to pull because of a sick man on shift and practically
back to his quarters. Back at his quarters he dropped into the seat at his
deck and started going through the data fresh from earth. Careful to take
notes and he progressed he learned a great deal of surprising information,
about Setzer and especially his employees. Setzer's past was littered with
totally legal takeovers followed by a complete liquidation of the staff, not
a good way to make friends. A side note in Amanda Fitzhumme's file noted that
her father had worked in one of these businesses and died shortly after
firing. The other interesting thing about Amanda was that she had periods
where no one at all seemed to know where she was.
	Mark Gowrie was a man with an especially checkered past, one murder
conviction but since it had been while he was still a minor that case was
sealed. Beyond that the only thing that made Gowrie was that he was the only
member of the group with past military service. The McEwens had at one time
been suspected of trying to embezzle from Mr. Setzer but had been cleared
when the money was never found and no one could link what was stolen to them.
On the surface Patrick Cahn looked like the only honest man in the bunch
until you looked at his record of movement up the ladder was unbelievable.
Cahn was obviously a man with connections, they probably weren't the type you
made in the rotary clubs either.
	Nunez was a man who understood how things worked in the real world
and was quick to put things together. A quirk of fate was that he would
figure out who the murderer was before Ratislav and Jason even got to look at
the files from earth. Grabbing his notes, he left his room and went straight
to the mag-lev and went direct to deck twelve. Knocking on the door of his
suspect, when the door slid open he held up his notes and waved the biography
in the person's face.
	"I know you killed Brian Setzer, so give yourself up now and you may
life through this." Whoever was inside said something, Nunez though about it
and then stepped inside. The door slid shut behind him and in the hall, if
someone had passed at that moment they just might have heard a slight thump.
End Part VI