Star Law: A Marshal Cole Series

Chapter 12 (a)

Orion still felt the shock from discovering a body back in the cargo hold. Everything surrounding Aubrey Chase Chen involved death. It sickened her. She had no idea who the man was that was hidden in the container. Moreover, the examination of the contents shed no light on what she was looking for.

There was little doubt that security would soon do exactly what she had done: Examine the cargo of Chen. In fact, it was lucky she hadn't run into anyone when examining the container. The ability to move around unseen was going to get harder and harder if another body turned up. And it would. Knowing that her own investigation would at the very least turn up on the computer, she decided to ditch the Chief Petty Officer's ID and find a new place to lay low. To this end, she had four more crew profiles to gain access to various areas of the ship.

Upon arriving back at the lifepod she called home the last days, she packed everything and tidied. It looked just as she found it. She made her way to the ship's fitness center where she took a long shower and changed into fresh clothes.

No one paid the least attention to her as she stared at herself in the mirror. One more day to her 13th birthday she thought sadly. She was not one to get down like this but today she felt especially low. Her dirty blonde hair lay wet on her shoulders and freckles dotted her cheeks. A tear fell from one of her blue eyes.

She shook her head and refused to let herself cry. Splashing cold water on her face, she went to the dryers and tears and hair were air dried in a second; the water taken in reclamation. Even with all the high technology, you still had to brush your own hair. After her medium length hair was brushed, she dressed in clean clothes. She shoved her dirty clothes down the reclamation chute where nanites would break the material down for other uses. She'd need new clothes nanufactured but that would wait till she was in a cabin she had pre-selected as her next refuge.

The access she had to crew computers had given her the current ship complement and cabin assignments. There were very few cabins empty. This was enough for her to make use of as opposed to hiding in service corridors and escape pods. A cabin also had the benefit of a bed, washroom and an iNan nanufacture station. She could make new clothes for herself.While she was sure no one was looking for her in particular, she knew her targets would know her on site. Aubrey Chase Chen had been surprised when encountering her. They continued to believe that she was dead and she didn't want to disabuse them of that notion. With that thought in mind, she used less busy corridors to make her way to the passenger cabins. It was there that she had located a room that had been booked but where the person had failed to show. There were always a number of cabins that booked passage and failed to make their connection.

She arrived at the starboard side cabin with a crew pass key. The door slid to one side and she stepped in. It was immediately apparent that this would be an improvement over her last accommodation in the escape pod. She called out for lights and the room illuminated slowly. It was a business class cabin with queen-sized bed, desk and chair and a living space area. Just off the entrance was a spacious washroom.

Orion left her little bag on the desk and surveyed the room. She wasn't here for comfort or a holiday. The first order of business was food and clothing. Business class and above cabins had an iNan station. A basic unit was able to nanufacture from CHON elements stored on each deck. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen along with a few other elements could be used to create food or clothing and some basic items according to computer formulas.

Built into the wall, a Nan was about hip level and looked like a kitchen appliance. However, it was so much more. To one side was a full length mirror. Orion stood before it and looked at herself in khaki pants and plain white shirt and her gray hoodie. She needed at least two or three changes of clothes. It was hard to tell when she'd have access to a Nan again.

"Computer, take measurements for under and out wear as well as shoes. Show menu for clothing."

A sensor behind the mirror took hyper accurate reading of her body while a selection of underwear, pants and shirts flashed across the split screen. Every now and then, she nod and the image on the screen would show how the item of clothing would look on her. In just a few minutes, she'd chosen all the clothing she wanted.

"Please print," she said. The Nan came to life and began loading the elements needed to nanufacture the clothing. It was surprisingly fast. As each piece was made, it was deposited in a chute nicely folded and ready to wear. Soon all the clothing was done and the machine was free for another use.

Orion stood before the Nan and rubbed her hands thinking about. "Computer, hot tea with lemon. Sugar on the side."

The Nan began to nanufacture a cup, saucer, spoon, hot tea, lemon and a small package with sugar. A few moments later a piping hot tea was ready to serve. The slice of lemon looked, felt and tasted like a lemon. She squeezed the juice into the tea and tore the paper packet with her sugar and spooned it into her cup.The invention of the Nan and use CHON made many people question the need for things like farming, cooking or exploration of the galaxy when all almost everything could be provided for within the carbonaceous rocks of the solar system. There was no easy answer and it was true that nanufacturing could provide everything to sustain a human in terms of food, clothing and shelter.

It might have been a combination of the Asimov and Hawking Accords that kept the creative aspects of craftsmanship in cooking, farming, design and manufacturing. There were chefs, sous chefs and pastry chefs on the Niagara working with farm grown products because people really enjoyed the preparation of natural products by experts.

Orion parked herself in a chair in front of a computer monitor. Using another crew member's code, she logged into the ship's computer. Sipping her tea, she tucked her legs under her. "Computer, please locate the cabin of Alexander Singh."