Onekka - The Tragedy of Jaqui Fennet (6 page)

The insistent
bing-bing, bing-bing of her comm device brought Jaq swimming through layers of
sleep to consciousness. Through the dim memory of half-awareness, she knew it
had been beeping at her for quite some time. The comm unit went quiet and she
stretched, then pulled the duvet across her body when she realised how cold her
skin felt. This seemed like a good morning. No sweaty body was pressing against
her from behind, no questing fingers were grasping at her breasts, and not a
waft of stale breath washed over her.
It wasn't until the comm unit bing-binged at her again and she dragged herself
upright that memories began to invade Jaq's head.
Oh shit!
She took the comm call on voice-only and mumbled a hello, only to be bombarded
by Helen's voice.
"Jaq! I'm so glad I got hold of you. I was getting worried you were gone
too. Jaq, something terrible happened." Even without vid, she could hear
the sobs choking Helen's voice. "Mr Garret's dead! He was missing this
morning, and we found blood in his office. Mr DePennier said there was too much
for him to have survived. Jaq, who could have done such a thing?"
Jaq felt like a vice had been clamped to her lungs, and the handle was turning.
Not a dream then, or anything so comforting. Indeed, right now, a nightmare
would be welcome. As her mind fought its way to full wakefulness and sorted
through the shock, something else occurred to her. She'd asked Helen to leave
her access to the Admin floor available. Had Helen connected the dots?
"J... Jaq?" said the comm unit.
"I'm here, Helen," she said, not needing to fake the tremor in her
voice. "I just can't believe it! Do they have any idea who might have done
it?"
"None, and I can't imagine who might want to. He wasn't a bad man, was he
Jaq?"
She stared into the middle distance. "He was alright most of the
time." She shook her head to clear the residual cobwebs of sleep. "Is
that why you called, to let me know?"
"Oh! Thanks for reminding me." Helen sniffed, filling the comm
channel with static. "Sorry. I need to pull myself together. They want to
talk to everyone, to see if they remember anything. The investigators have set
up in the boardroom. Can you come up?"
"Is DePennier there?"
"No, not since we found the blood, first thing this morning. I'm not sure
where he is. Why, is it important? You can trust Mr DePennier, Jaq. He's a good
man."
Jaq sighed quietly. Had DePennier wiped Helen's memories again? It helped Jaq,
but also removed a potential ally. Still, there was nothing for it - to avoid
heading up there would look suspicious and, if she was careful, she might learn
something about how they were approaching the investigation. She checked her
timer and saw she'd been asleep four hours. It would have to be enough.
"Okay, Helen, I'll be up as soon as I can."
"Be quick. I've been trying to get hold of you for ages. Comm me from the
elevator and I can let you in."
*
Are you a murderer, Jaq?
Her thoughts plagued her as she traversed the
station. The place she'd called home for several years no longer felt familiar.
Perhaps it was because she'd seen it from another side, survived a journey
through Onekka's hidden places without her comforting support systems. Or maybe
it was Jaq herself, no longer the innocent. Had she spoiled her own home, the
only place that welcomed her when she needed to escape Earth?
It was self defence, she told herself; she had no choice, but a colder side of
her knew that wasn't true.
You didn't have to kill him.
Her heart felt
like an enraged animal in her chest, beating against her organs as if seeking
escape. She couldn't arrive at the office like this! Pausing at the elevator,
Jaq took a moment to close her eyes, and tried not to worry about whether it
looked strange to passers by.
Her dreams were her salvation. Everything else had gone crazy, but they stayed
constant in their support. They knew what was good for her, showed her the path
forward, and helped her when she was unequipped to help herself. She consoled
herself with that thought, repeated it like a mantra for several minutes.
Trust
the dreams. They will see you through.
Heartbeat steadied, she strode into the elevator and whispered for the admin
floor. She placed a call to Helen, telling her she was heading up, and made an
effort not to look at the cameras when she reached the Admin floor. If the
doors opened for her without help, this could all go wrong in a moment.
Helen ushered her into the boardroom, where a panel of enforcement officers
occupied one side. She found it subtly sickening to see an investigation team
sitting calmly in the middle of what she knew was a crime scene. Still, it
would do no good to reveal that now - she needed to find more evidence, if such
existed. Two employees were already being interviewed, and Jaq took a seat
between them, facing the young, female officer with an impassive face but
racing mind.
"Ms Fennet," said the woman, briefly meeting Jaq's challenging gaze
with her own green-eyed rebuttal. "Thank you for dropping in to see
us."
Jaq smiled, at least she hoped that's what she was doing. "I just hope I
can help, but I can't imagine how."
"Sometimes the smallest details provide us a clue, even if they seem
totally unimportant at the time. When did you last see Mr Fennet?"
Five hours ago when I cut off his hand, plucked out his eyes, and stuffed
him into an incinerator.
"The day before yesterday. He and a guy from
upstairs - he had some French name, I forget - told me I was being given a new
post and moved off station."
The young officer studied her intently for a few moments. "I bet that
really pissed you off."
"You'd think so, but in reality I've been wanting to get out of here for a
while." She rolled her eyes upward. "Glass ceiling, you know?"
The officer smiled and nodded. "Besides, I'm on full pay until the next
rota shuttle, so I can kick back and relax."
Too much detail - you're
meant to be upset about your boss' murder, not excited about your future!
"Mr Garret, Dane... he was always good to me. He was no angel or anything,
but I couldn't have asked for a better manager."
"Can you think of anyone who'd come into conflict with Mr Garret
recently?" The officer moved her hands as she spoke, as if to emphasize
the meaning of her words. "Have there been any angry phone exchanges or
tense meetings, or strange behaviour around the office? These can all give us
indications of motive, or at least intent."
A flash of inspiration shot through Jaq's head. "That French guy I told
you about - the one from upstairs. He used to go in Mr Garret's office a lot.
They had some real shouting matches recently. I think they disagreed over some
policy decision, but Mr Garret would never tell me about it."
The young woman's fingers danced on her comp unit. "Thank you, that could
be helpful."
Jaq suppressed a smile. "DePennier! That's his name. It just came to
me." More finger dancing. "How's the investigation going, officer?
Any leads as yet?"
"Oh, we're just gathering initial data at the moment. I mean, murders are
pretty rare on Onekka - one every few months, on average. We don't really have
the experience. There's a special detective flying up from Earth to take
over." She looked briefly in Jaq's direction to share a glance. "Some
hotshot to show us frontier yokels how it's done." She looked down again,
still tapping away.
"Anything else you need from me, Officer?"
The woman smiled. "You've been really helpful, Ms Fennet. If you can think
of anything else that's relevant, it would be great if you could let me know.
Otherwise, please just keep yourself available."
Jaq nodded. "Nothing else right now - do I call the usual number if I
think of anything?"
A nod in return. "Thank you for your time, Ms Fennet."
Jaq left as quickly as possible. She had no desire to run into DePennier. He
would be running his own investigation, and something told Jaq he wouldn't feel
constrained by procedure like the security officers were. If he knew about the
gun Garret had kept, or noticed his key missing from the desk, then he'd know
it was more than just a killing. She was well aware that she'd be his prime
suspect.
As she rode the elevator down, she came to a conclusion. The Sector 5 door
could wait for now, at least until things calmed down. Her main priority had to
be acting normal, going about her life in a predictable fashion. That meant
working out, drinking, and some not-so-subtle dalliance with the opposite sex.
Jaq sighed, and reached for her comm unit.
*
"I was wondering when you'd call," said Derek as she approached him
in the restaurant.
Jaq perched on the seat opposite him and doffed her jacket, shrugging it onto
the chair back behind her. You never required such clothing on Onekka, but she
needed her props. As she looked into his face, full of jovial bravado and a
strong current of expectation, she sucked hard on her cigarette. Her heart
fluttered in her chest, and not for a good reason. No calming flood of
pheromones set her at ease. She tapped idly on the fake cylinder.
Is this
thing broken?
Knowing she was distracted, Jaq took a moment and looked over her part-time
lover's face, reminding herself of why she'd chosen him. He didn't look as
ruggedly handsome as usual. Sure, the jaw could have been shaped from a piece
of oak, and his dancing blue-grey eyes could weaken knicker elastic from twenty
paces. His smile was infectious and, as lovers went, he was pretty attentive.
It almost made up for the fact that he knew all this, and used it as often as
he got the chance.
Sitting there, watching him grin at her across a table, Jaq just didn't see it
any more.
"You want to order?" he asked. "Or were you planning on eyeing
me up all night. I mean, that's fine with me, but I'd still like to eat."
She scowled at him. "Sure, I should eat." The menu was represented
digitally on the table top, and offered everything from a burger and chips to
fine dining. Jaq read through a hundred dishes without seeing anything that
caught her fancy. Finally, she gave up and held her finger over a pizza. The
table registered her choice and asked for confirmation of her credit. Food
chosen, the menu scrolled from the table and was replaced with a very
believable image of a table cloth. Jaq fought the urge to giggle.
Derek frowned when he saw her shaking shoulders. "You okay, Babes? You're
not saying much."
"Do you ever stop and notice the absurdity of what we're doing here?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean we go out of our way to create an accepted impression of
normality, even when it makes no sense. We have self-cleaning tables, but still
want them to look like they have table cloths. We're living on a gigantic
floating box made of steel and composite plastics, but half the technology on
board is dedicated to hiding that from us, even though we all flew here on a
space ship. Our advances push us into the future, whilst mentally, we cling to
a point steadily further distant in the past. How are we going to evolve as a
species if we're too polite to accept change when it comes? Seriously, Derek,
is it just me? Am I going nuts, or is there something fundamentally absurd
about what we do up here?"
His frown was deeper than ever. "I think you think too much,
sweetcheeks."
At that moment, the food arrived and saved him from her bitter retort. Jaq
spent the next few minutes eating something that had no flavour while her head
asked her repeatedly what was wrong with her. The things she'd spent her life
doing just seemed like a watered down memory, as though everything was a waste
of time. Everything around her felt de-saturated and bland. She had to force
her mouth to chew and swallow each lump of pizza, even though she hadn't eaten
in more than a day. Hunger, she thought, was a silly whim that distracted from
one's purpose.
"I'm coming to the conclusion there's no point in eating," she
mumbled.
Derek's eyes squinted at her. "I'm not sure I understand your
meaning."
That was it; Jaq collapsed in helpless giggles. "Meaning? Ha! I don't
think I have one anymore." The laughter took over her whole frame and left
her gasping on the table while her mind retreated in fear and lack of
understanding. She went on laughing until he had her in the elevator, heading
down to the residential zones. Then, panicking inside, she regained control of
herself, at least enough to quieten down. If Derek called the men in white
coats, her life would go from a mess to a first class, grade A clusterfuck.
When they reached her bunk, she sat numbly on the bed and allowed him to
undress her. She felt utterly alone. In itself that wasn't unusual, but usually
a slew of drinks and a randy guy helped hide the sensation. Now, the thought of
anyone climbing atop her turned her stomach and flooded her with dread, but she
just didn't have the energy to fight him off. If nothing else, she thought, at
least she knew where she stood with men like Derek. She knew what they wanted,
and knew they'd be gone like a fart on the wind once they got it.
As he pulled off her top, leaving just her underwear, Derek pushed her down
onto the bed. Jaq closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable, preparing to
lose her thoughts in a wave of speculation and planning. What was she going to
do about the investigation, and Garret's body parts in her bunk? More to the point,
did she care? Would it not be easier to give herself up and let the system
decide what she should do?
When she felt the duvet being pulled across her, she almost started in
surprise.
"Wh- Aren't you staying?" she blurted.
His face held a concern she'd never seen before. "I think you need sleep
more than you need me."
Tears flooded her vision - this couldn't happen. "No! Do what you brought
me here to do, damn it. Fuck me, that's what you want. Don't deny it!"
"Sorry, Babes." He shrugged. "I'm not that kind of guy. You get
some rest."
With that he departed, leaving her lost and confused, desperate for company she
didn't want, whatever kind it might be. Jaq closed her eyes on the world that
had lost all sensation for her, and blubbed herself into a restless slumber.