Bonshoon: A Tale of the Final Fall of Man Read Online Free PDF

snapping at each other, they barely even looked up at me. I sure hope they’re right about aki’Drednanth looking after themselves, because…” she shook her head again. “They didn’t seem to be any more or less upset than usual.”
    “Where’s Dunnkirk now?” Waffa asked.
    “Z-Lin released the freezer array components from Dunnkirk’s busted sleeper pod,” Decay said, “and I got him tucked in and basically frozen on one of the spare examination tables.”
    “So he’s getting to rest in the pod after all,” Zeegon said.
    “The array could still function as meat stasis,” Decay went on, when nobody had any further morose observations to offer, “but without the systems installed – with the damage that had been done – it would have killed a living Bonshoon. It could never have worked as a proper sleeper anymore, but to keep the body in stasis…” he sighed, and consulted his own pad. “The blood, and the transfusion extractor, is in storage. It’s still warm. I mean, viable.”
    “ Decay ,” Zeegon grimaced.
    “Sorry, I know this is one of those squeamish subjects,” the Blaran shrugged his upper shoulders. “What I mean is, the bags were quite professionally swapped out and stored in the extractor system. It’s still workable. The entire lot was returned to lock-down, where we decided to keep it. He’s been dead for too long to effectively revive, even a Molranoid body will … well, all I mean is, the blood can be used in medical emergencies, saving us the time required to print it. That’s where Dunnkirk is now. And the preservation is flawless – no further loss of evidence. It’s all saved up, he’s in stasis until Cratch can be cleared and trusted to conduct an autopsy on the body.”
    “I’m keeping an eye on Hell’s weather reports,” Sally muttered.
    “Yeah,” Waffa said, “let’s think about this. You said the blood was extracted professionally ? Who else can do that?”
    “Basic humanoid and Molranoid medical procedures are part of command training,” Z-Lin said, “and that includes this sort of isolation equipment. So it comes back to Glomulus, me, or the Captain,” she paused. “Probably you too, Decay,” Decay nodded curtly.
    “I could probably do it too,” Sally conceded, “although my med training is pretty rusty.”
    Janya raised her eyebrows a little as everyone turned to look at her. “I am a researcher ,” she said patiently. “If I knew anything about medicine, Glomulus would still be in the brig.”
    “You might want to put me back in there until you figure this one out,” Cratch said seriously. “I wasn’t responsible, but it’s clearly clouding the issue and additionally a lot of you look like you have twitchy fingers.”
    “Okay,” Sally said, “as far as I’m concerned this is like a locked-door mystery, only the question is how Cratch managed to commit the murder from the other side of the ship and one deck down, with two witnesses and Bruce watching him.”
    “Bruce, were you watching me too?” Glomulus said. “I do declare.”
    “Think of me as a doctor,” Bruce said, “who doesn’t actually give a crap about you.”
    “Okay, so we move on to actual motive ,” Sally said firmly. “Given that each of us apparently has some sort of murderous expertise to bring to the table, which of us actually might want Dunnkirk dead?”
    “None of us,” Zeegon snapped. “Damn it, probably not even Cratch.”
    “Actually,” Waffa admitted, “about the only ones of us who have any sort of motive are me and Zeeg.”
    The helmsman turned to stare at the Chief of Security and Operations. “What?”
    “Dunnkirk squeezed our nuts that time,” Waffa said with an uncomfortable shrug.
    “You mean that scuffle we got into about the Cancer collaborators?” Zeegon winced. “Yeah, fair to say. We were all pretty tense and it was a bit of a – okay, it was a really dumb thing to say. We got off lightly and we were lucky it was Dunster. We