Chapter 2

Mla was. Mla decided to make life. Mla created the waters that flowed, the ground that was still, the winds that blew, the sun that shone, the plants that grow and the animals that lived. Mla created the Ssuuvit to find the purest and most ideal of all of these things and to create the places for these things to thrive and grow. The Mlassyn were found to be the most ideal of all the animals that lived and when the Ssuuvit created the place for them to grow and thrive, Mla decided they would be paramount in his design. Mla told the Ssuuvit they would be known as Mlassyn, child of Mla.

- from The Early Times, Book of the Beginning, Treatise of Mla

Security technician Asuun was not having a good morning. His grey coloured stripes tended to look more silver coloured when he was frustrated, and the rest of his office was making a point to have other things to do, after a single quick look in his direction. Normally the stripes serve to moderate the deep green colouring that was his base, but the base colouring made the silvering effect more obvious in these instances.

The report did not make sense. He loved his office AI, it made gathering the information so much easier, it made organizing it simple...but couldn’t understand why the conclusion from the data was wrong.

Four violent deaths in the last cycle, all done from close range...the victim had to have seen the killer, but no clues. Outside, in a residence, outside of a night spot and the last one at the waste management plant. Three were male, one female. The weapons never found, no identification of what it was. Nothing stolen from the victims. None of the victims were from related family groups.

The bodies were found minutes after death to hours after, never a witness. The weapon used is always a hand held bladed weapon...object...can’t be sure it is specifically a weapon. Analysis of the bodies shows that at least one victim was killed with an object/weapon that tore as much as slashed or stabbed.

There were only limited signs of self-defensive actions on the part of the victims. Two of the victims were in very good physical shape, according to the records, they were active in competitive sports and one was an experienced player in full VR combat sims.

No connection between the victims other than they lived in this city. Therefore, the AI insisted in trying to organize these under a subset listing of ‘unrelated’. Asuun knew that he was looking at another mass murderer, the last one had died in custody 2 cycles ago. He was not ready to make that statement official though. No one wanted to know that the killings were happening again.

When the first murder had happened, Asuun had been assigned to investigate the horrible crime. The victim had been found behind a popular social club. The space was used to transfer goods into the club, not a usual route for someone to take. The victim had been at the club earlier, and had left alone according to the club’s portal records.

No way to identify if anyone had followed them out of the club, the portal was showing a lot of activity at that time of night. Local street security spots showed the victim turning down the narrow alley alone. Less than an hour after the club closed, the main host discovered the body behind the club, and reported it to security.

Asuun was shocked as he learned the details of the murder case he had been assigned. It is rare for any violent crimes now, and this one was brutal. The other investigators he worked with, had initially thought him lucky to get the chance to work on such a high profile case. There were some leads in the case, but nothing definitive.

Asuun was satisfied with the pace of the investigation, he was sure that it would not be too much longer before he was able to piece the evidence together to give him a suspect. Then there was another murder. The AI tagged the event as having enough similarities to the case he was working on, that he was appointed the lead investigator there too.

All of Asuun’s training and experience had given him confidence that if this was a second crime, then the amount of evidence would make it much easier in identifying the criminal. He could not deny the brutality of the attack. But the evidence from the second murder was essentially the same; the type of wound, the likely physical dimensions of the attacker, the attacker being likely right handed, no resistance on the part of the victim…nothing new to work with.

With 2 bodies to compare, the analysis of the attack became more detailed. The AI was able to identify that the thrusts were almost perfectly straight and showed little to no, side to side movement. Asuun knew this was a strong indicator of someone who was emotionally disconnected, or distant. The attacks were not being done by someone in a rage, or other emotional circumstance.

The new analysis decreased the chances that the attacker knew the victims, possibly a truly random killing. In many ways, the lack of new evidence itself was an indicator of a careful attacker, someone actively attempting to minimize their presence at the crime scene.

Asuun had managed to put together a list of 23 possible suspects, but he only got that many when he made the criteria for the suspect extremely broad. He was preparing to arrange to start interviewing them when the third victim was found.

It was easier this time for the AI to see the pattern in the killing and it associated the new death with his case within minutes of receiving the initial site reports. This case had gone from high profile; to the most talked about topic at the security section. He was not expecting a visit from the Minister of Cultural Studies.

Asuun had just finished settling into his office for the day when he was notified that the Minister was on her way and would be at his office in a few minutes. Asuun was not familiar with this Minister or the department but; a quick query to his AI gave him the information he needed. The Ministry of Cultural Studies is involved with analyzing alien societies.

Asuun had no idea why the Minister would be coming to visit him. He had just finished reviewing the information on the Minister herself, when he was notified that the Minister was waiting at his portal.

“I appreciate you seeing me on such short notice. I know you must be very busy.”

“I appreciate your consideration, but I am happy to be of assistance to you, Minister Osil. How may I assist you today?”

“I have recently become aware of the case you are currently working on and I am sure that I have some information that would be of use to you.” Minister Osil said this with a subdued tone to her voice.

Asuun was a little surprised to hear this as he had told his AI to compile all available information on this case.

“I would appreciate any information that you may have. But surely you have better things to do than come in person to give me this information?”

The Minister gave him a look that he could only describe as depressed. “I am sorry to have to be the one to tell you that you have become involved in a horrible chain of events that goes back over 400 cycles.”

Asuun had no idea what she was talking about.

“This information is locked from general access under a dual red band block, and can only be unlocked on specific locations at any given time. At this time I need to ask you to acknowledge that I have informed you of the seriousness of the information.”

Asuun sat there for a couple seconds, not expecting that. “I acknowledge that you have informed me of the seriousness of the data.”

As soon as he had finished speaking, he was made aware by his AI that it had been given access to new information. Within seconds the AI started passing information to Asuun. He was shocked. This was impossible.

It was more than impossible, it was ridiculous...preposterous…insane! 8 murders the first time. 33 cycles, then 11 murders. Another 51 cycles then, 15 murders. 24 cycles and 11 more murders. 61 cycles and 23 murders. The list goes on and on and on, covering just over 500 cycles.

“What is this? Where did this come from?”

Even as the questions burst from his mouth, more information was being realized. No known source. Not a pathogen, disease or mental illness. Not a parasite or result of mental manipulation.

All previous killers were apprehended eventually and they were subjected to extensive testing and questioning. None ever admitted to the killings. Even after being shown incontrovertible evidence, none confessed. All showed remorse at the murders, but none could or would say they remembered committing the violent crimes.

All the deaths were by similar means, all the victims were killed by simple weapons, thrusting or slashing. No signs of emotional involvement in the killings. No connection between victims, except for the general area they were all killed in.

The one thing that stood out as an oddity is that all of the murders occurred in 3 cities, and most of them in this one. The first set of murders were here. Seeing as how there are hundreds of cities on the planet, many having larger populations, this did not make sense.

Anyone that wanted to commit murder and get away with it, would do it in a large city, where the crowds and events would serve as a better cover to their actions. The new information indicated that previous investigators had noted this as well and had gone over the 3 cities in exacting detail.

The first murderer was a medical technician who worked in the Emergency Services department. His name was Gruth. He was 1.66 meters tall, 61 kilograms. The murder weapon he used was a 20cm long, serrated knife.

The initial investigator explained in his report that the murderer had no special skill with knives, nor any history of interest in them. He made no effort to stay in good physical shape. His hobbies were listed as being reading, joshi collecting and cooking.

His family had been interviewed, and most of them either liked him a lot or at least thought of him in a positive way. They did mention that he had seemed more…moody. They said he would increasingly react to teasing with increasing amounts of aggression. At the time of his apprehension, they had him booked with a specialist, but he had not had a visit yet.

The second murderer had been a facilities staff member, named Nuall. She had been working at the same location for over 35 cycles. She had been described as friendly, was generally liked by her coworkers, and was in a stable relationship at the time of her apprehension.

Nuall had used a climbing spike as her murder weapon. After her apprehension, a search of her place showed that she was obviously a fan of climbing and had a high quality set of gear for that purpose. She kept the gear perfectly maintained and her travel history showed that she was out regularly, climbing.

They found traces of blood on 4 of the 27 climbing spikes. The 4 spikes were not set a side, and no special treatment had been given to them. They had been cleaned, but that was likely due to their storage arrangement. All of her spikes, clasps, straps and rigging were kept stored in a nanite bath which would automatically clean the gear of any foreign matter to prevent degradation of the material, as well as make small repairs.

The third murderer was a technician named Malil. He had worked at the facility that had housed Nuall in her final days. He had used a vibroblade, normally used to trim fragile decorative tiles. He had been the oldest of the murderers at 94 cycles when he started killing.

The list went on and on, detailing the different murderers; what weapons they used, how they killed their victims, how long they were killing, what they ate, where they worked, how long they lived, who their families were, and their psychological evaluation.

One oddity that stands out is that aside from Malil, all of them died earlier than they should have, and all from natural causes. If you factor in his age, then Malil died relatively early as well, as he did not live nearly as long in rehabilitation as any of the others.

The other oddity that could not be explained is that while they were in rehabilitation no new murders occurred. However, once they had died, the murders would start again within a cycle. The shortest period before the pattern restarted was just under half a cycle, the longest just over a cycle.

The analysis is clear that there is a connection between the murderers, but nothing has been demonstrated. All have been in proximity to the previous killer at some point, up to and including the time of their death. All known vectors for the transmission of anything, were being monitored, and nothing was detected.

Asuun realized the Minister was still sitting there, watching him. He stopped the flow of data for now and directed his AI to start running some basic organizational routines against the data. He knew others had done the same, but his routines were optimized for how he would prioritize the data. His AI would ensure that any connections that met the criteria he normally used, would be brought to his attention.

“I apologize Minister. I did not mean to ignore you like that, the information you gave me was a bit of a shock.”

“You have no need to apologize. When I took this office, this was one of the hidden facts that needed to be tracked. You are now part of a select list of individuals who are aware of these events, and know of their scope. While I won’t ask you to keep it to yourself, I will ask you to be very careful who you share this with.”

It did not take much imagination for Asuun to understand the ramifications of this information becoming public knowledge. He had a problem accepting that this had been happening for hundreds of cycles and no one knew why.

“I will leave you to do a difficult job, and wish you the best of luck to find this killer as soon as possible.” The Minister moved toward the portal.

Asuun watched the Minister leave his office. This changed his investigation completely. He could expect the murders to continue until he was able to identify the killer. All previous killers were arrested without resistance, the killer being completely surprised to be arrested.

The previous killers did not display any sense of timing in their kills, it could be a day or a couple weeks between murders. The last death was just a week ago, so the next victim could show up at any time.

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