Fall Getaway part 3

Fall Getaway part 3

“What appears to have happened, is that your guests got caught in the storm out on the coast. When they tried to teleport back, they failed to notice that the lightning rod had fallen off the teleport station.”

“I don’t know how many times I’ve reported that loose rod to Marin and North county. All they’ve done is argue about who has to pay for maintenance. It’s on their county border, people from both counties use it but neither one of them wants the responsibility. You’d think they could afford to send a robot to tighten a few screws. I even offered to fix it myself but they threatened to sue me!”

“Anyways, as far as I can tell, that gale blowing today tore it loose leaving the teleport station unprotected.”, behind the sheriff’s back three of the Independents looked away when he said that. The other one seemed to freeze in his place. The hairs at the back of Alicia’s neck stood up seeing them behave that way. She suspected the sheriff’s annoyance with the counties was clouding his judgement.

“It’s the tallest thing there standing on that grassy dune with nothing but more dunes and ocean around. So while their companion was making his way through the tunnel lightning struck and the system shut down. The poor man had one leg through when the wormhole tunnel collapsed. That’s why your employee found eh… parts of him. Terrible tragedy.”

The Independents seemed to let out a collective sigh. It made Alicia’s skin crawl. “Now as I understand these people have paid for a few weeks stay with you?”, the sheriff was staring at her. “Uhm, yes, yes they have. They eh, they’re booked for two, two weeks.”, she didn’t sound like herself.

“Well good. They’ve requested asylum so we need to know where they are. I’ll alert the immigrations officer and I’ll let you know when he’s going to be here. Now do you have any more questions?” Alicia blinked. “Uh, not, not right now… I guess… eh, I don’t know.” “It’s alright, I’ll come by tomorrow just in case. I have to go but deputy Hersisdóttir will stay here to wrap things up.”

Alicia watched him go until a shuffling sound made her look around. One of the Independents had stepped forward. Her back stiff, Alicia turned and offered them her condolences. “I suppose you’ll want to go inside now. I’ll alert your travel guide, miss Arthur, of your situation.” The Independents nodded and took the path to their cabin.

Deputy Hersisdóttir motioned for her to come. “I suggest you let miss Shidu here take a few days off. She’s pretty shook up from her ‘find’.” “Yes, yes of course, I’ll eh, I’ll get someone to fill in for her. Uhm, so are you finished here, do you need anything from me?” “No we’re done for today.” The deputy left. Alicia called Meira to come pick up Jinn. The two of them shared a cabin during peak seasons.

While she made her way to Nola’s cabin she arranged for Felicity Watson to take over Jinn’s shift for the next couple of days. “Alicia! You look so pale, what happened?!” As Alicia sat down to tell her story she was shaking. It wouldn’t have been the first time one of her guests had suffered a fatal accident. People had a way of ignoring safety guidelines. In a woodland resort with hilly terrain that kind of behaviour had its consequences. But this felt different.

Nola brought them two shot glasses and two steaming mugs. “I’m suspending protocol for three minutes. Finish that brandy and we’ll have some tea.” Alicia didn’t argue. The two women downed their shots and Nola rinsed the glasses before putting them in the dishwasher.

“You don’t think it was an accident do you?”, Nola said. Alicia shook her head. “You’re probably right. Did I ever tell you The Independents only visit space stations that sign an NAA?” “What’s an NAA?”, Alicia asked. “NAA stands for No Asylum Agreement. Basically you have to promise that if any of them tries to stay, you will hunt them down and deliver them to their ships as soon as possible.”

“Can they do that?! I mean how is that even legal?” Alicia’s eyes were round with surprise. Nola shrugged. “That’s the problem with these space travelling nations. They all make up their own rules and they’re not bound by any of the treaties in known space.” “But isn’t Corridor bound by those rules?”, Alicia said. “Apparently not. Some loophole about refugees being people who fled their planet. I guess space ships don’t count as planets…”   

“So you mean to say I’ve got four people who killed a man because they want to stay here?”, Alicia said. Nola frowned. “I don’t really know but if that story Dhriti told me was even half true then I think I understand how something like this could happen.” Alicia remembered the story from the night before. Though it had bothered her, it had also seemed far away and unreal. It was real now.

“What am I going to do Nola? They’ve booked for two weeks, they’ve requested asylum and all Talwar could talk about was the counties failing to fix the lightning rod. I mean, I get that they didn’t want to go back but did they have to kill him? How am I supposed to deal with that?”

Nola paused before giving an answer. “We don’t know what happened and if the sheriff didn’t find any proof then there isn’t much we can do. You can tell the sheriff about your suspicions. Other than that, I don’t know either. What am I supposed to tell their captain?” Nola swore. “I have to call this in to my superior and he’s going to alert their captain.”

At that moment Nola’s spacecom started flashing and playing an urgent tune. She answered the device and retreated into her bedroom. After a while she emerged looking flustered. “That was my manager. The sheriff’s department has already informed the captain. They’re demanding extradition on the grounds that it is illegal for Independent civilians to go anywhere without their supervisor.”

The two women made eye contact. “But that’s insane.” Alicia concluded. Nola shook her head, “I know that after what happened today these people give you the creeps, but really Alicia, we can’t send them back.” Alicia sighed. “You’re right. I’ll tell the sheriff what’s bothering me but these are strange circumstances.”

Alicia had a bad night. When dawn found her awake, she got out of bed and went to work. She was checking the bookings when the first employees started drifting in. Those that lived in the resort had already heard about the accident. When Meira came in, Alicia asked her how Jinn was doing. “I don’t think she slept much. Heard her screaming twice. I guess she was having nightmares about finding that guy.”

Alicia nodded and made a mental note to call doctor Finnleygarson. Felicity Watson needed briefing and then it was time for their staff meeting. When it was over Alicia arranged for the doctor to visit Jinn. After that she couldn’t think of anything else but to wait for the sheriff to arrive.

Sheriff Talwar came walking up the path from station one looking thoughtful. When he saw Alicia was watching him, he took on a more neutral expression. “Good morning miss Mahoe, how are you holding up?” Alicia invited him into her office.

“Sheriff I don’t know how to say this right so I’m just going to ask you, do you really think this was an accident?” The sheriff let out a sigh as he sat down in one of the chairs. “Well, I guess that’s a good question. You know these last few days I’ve been spending my mornings checking in on the new grave they uncovered out where the Maluhia hotel is going to build its new apartments.”

“Yes, I’ve heard of that.”, Alicia said wondering where he was going with this. “The captain of their ship has officially demanded extradition. Do you think we should extradite them?”, he said. Alicia thought about the mass graves and the pain button. Then she shook her head. “Well I had my Lucy bot process both scenes and she couldn’t find evidence of tampering. If the forensics robot says it was an accident, then that’s what it was.”

“Even if it is strange that he was the only one going through the tunnel when it collapsed. I’m keeping my eye on them though. So don’t hesitate to call if you notice anything out of the ordinary. You have my spacecom number?” Alicia nodded. “Good. The immigrations officer will be here around midday.” “Thank you sheriff.”, she said.
 
Alicia walked him to the door of the reception cabin. She watched him go down the path to teleport station one as a cold wind started to blow. When the sheriff was no longer in sight, Alicia turned around and went inside.