"Miss Oswen gave me enough details on the cause of the damage to start writing a report, at least, but some things still don't sit right with me. Even if Inea's death made him suicidal I still don't understand Markov's motivation for trying to take out the entire station, for one..."

"He had the space crazies!"

"...I can't put that in a report. But unfortunately Oswen had very little contact with him following Inea's death. And we don't even really know what happened to Inea herself other than Zee's examination indicating blunt force trauma to the head."

"Ah, about that." Karoff fishes something out of his pocket and taps a button. "Relevant?"

A 3D image of an energy canister is projected into the air in front of you all. You recognize the type; the larger energy cells can be volatile, so the canisters are made with half an inch of steel and an interior enamel coating for protection. This one is about the size of a fire extinguisher, which is typical.

What's not typical about this one however is the is the dried blood and long strands of dark hair caught up on the outside of the sealing mechanism.

"Where the hell did you find that?" Hinsman wants to know.

"In the storage arm where Miss Oswen lost hers. There are a lot of spent canisters piled up in there, and I was looking for more power cables just now and stumbled across this one."

Hinsman's brow is deeply furrowed as he studies the projection. "That is just suspicious as hell. Has anyone had a look at the body yet?"

You and Karoff both shake your heads, and as Matti had just mentioned where they were stored, the three of you make your way to the dining hall.

The two bodies are on gurneys, zipped up in body bags in the back of the freezer. You open the bag holding the smaller form, ignoring Karoff's inquiries as to whether letting restaurant kitchens rent freezer space to morgues could be a viable alternate source of income.

Upon examination the dark haired woman's cause of death is immediately obvious, her skull on the left side having been caved in just above and behind the ear.

"Not a glancing blow, either. There's no way that happens from a spent fuel canister falling on someone's head. Not even a full one."

After a long moment he sighs and steps back. "All right, let's go over what facts we have. About a week ago, Inea Banca was doing routine maintenance in the medical wing and had her skull caved in with an energy canister. Markov Karst then goes into seclusion for two days, at the end of which he goes to the medical wing and attempts to cause a power overload that will destroy the station; a major act of treason against the Order that will render a number of Outer Rim colony worlds and ships unable to receive emergency aid and also kill the young woman who remains here. A bit dramatic even for a suicide attempt, but I suppose not outside the realm of possibility. When it fails he become violent when Oswen attempts a rescue and dies moments after. Miss Oswen sends out a distress call that doesn't seem to have gone through due to the failing power and waits here alone until we happen by. Does that all sound about right?"

You mull that over while he and Karoff discuss the details a bit longer.

"I'm sure there's more investigating we can do," Hinsman is saying. "The medical arm, for instance. That's where everything happened."

Karoff shakes his head. "Atmosphere and shielding has failed and there are holes blown straight through the plating. It'd be too much a risk just to satisfy our curiosity, even for Zee."

"Fair. It doesn't feel right to just sit around and wait on another team, though. We need to get together as much info as possible. It might be useful to read over the personnel reports again, and...oh! There's the report they sent in on Inea's death." Hinsman glances over at you. "And what about you, Zee? Let's see that sharp analytical brain in action."

"My brain's not any sharper than yours I'm afraid. And too bad, some kind of AI to analyze things might be more what you need right now." But you've been following a particular train of thought, and at his prompting you decide to give it voice. "But they didn't fill out a death report on Inea Banca. I don't know why Oswen claimed that. Banca was still listed as alive in their database when Karoff pulled up her file, right before we boarded. So in fact, I believe that..."

You say "There's something more going on..."

"I found Carst's personal computer in his room about an hour ago. It was well hidden, and he'd been using it to send and receive coded messages to someone outside the Order network."

"Really? Shit." Hinsman sighs, running his fingers through his dark hair. "Now we've got that to figure out."

"Who would have a satellite out here aside from the Order?" you ask.

"Traders, miners, colonists, pirates...?" Karoff ticks the list of anyone you might expect to encounter past the edge of the frontier off on his fingers.

Hinsman has a thoughtful frown. "Seems like it'd have to be pirates. Anyone else would have it registered so we could protect it. They'd have to be pretty organized, though. Damn, I don't like this at all."

"Oh, but what if it's aliens!"

You and Hinsman both give him a look. Hinsman sounds a little exasperated. "Enough joking around."

"Whatever secret Carst had, Inea must've found out. Maybe something happened between them in the medical wing...he might've killed her on the spot, given the caveman tactics used," you say.

"The sabotage, though?"

"Lots of people have it out for the Order. Maybe treason was always the plan and being found out screwed it up somehow. We need to find out what those messages said." This last you direct at Karoff.

He explains to Hinsman. "I plugged them into the main computer when Zee brought it to me. Give it a bit more time, it should be able to crack the code."

"Let's go there then. Should shed some light on matters. And Kar, you can run a search for the report on Inea's death while we wait. I know we don't have a record of it but Matti said they wrote it, it's possible it was just never finalized and sent. I'd really love to see what load of crap Markov was planning to feed HQ."