Free Starbase Human by Kristine Kathryn Rusch Page A

environmental suit. It didn’t matter how cold he set the internal temperature, environmental suits always made him sweat.
    He wanted this autopsy to end, but he also knew this one was going to take three times longer than the standard autopsy, just because of all of the things he had to check to make certain this woman’s body wasn’t a contaminant in its own right.
    Brodeur had six different nanoprobes digging into various places on the dead woman’s skin, when a holographic computer screen appeared in front of him, a red warning light flashing.
    He moaned slightly. He hated the lights. They got sent to his boss automatically, and often the damn lights reported something he had done wrong.
    Well, not wrong, exactly, but not according to protocol.
    The irony was, everything he had done in this autopsy so far had been exactly according to protocol.
    The body was on an isolated gurney, which was doing its own investigation; they were in one of the most protected autopsy chambers in the coroner’s office; and Brodeur was using all the right equipment.
    He even had on the right environmental suit for the type of poison he suspected killed the woman.
    He cursed, silently and creatively, wishing he could express his frustration aloud, but knowing he couldn’t, because it would become part of the permanent record.
    Instead, he glared at the light and wished it would go away. Not that he could make it go away with a look.
    The light had a code he had never seen before. He put his gloved finger on the code, and it created a whole new screen.
    This body is cloned. Please file the permissions code to autopsy this clone or cease work immediately.
    “The hell…?” he asked, then realized he had spoken aloud, and he silently cursed himself. Some stupid supervisor, reviewing the footage, would think he was too dumb to know a cloned body from a real body.
    But he had made a mistake. He hadn’t taken DNA in the field. He had used facial recognition to identify this woman, and he had told DeRicci who the woman was based not on the DNA testing, but on the facial recognition.
    Of course, if DeRicci hadn’t pressed him to give her an identification right away, he would have followed procedure.
    Brodeur let out a small sigh, then remembered what he had been doing.
    There was still a way to cover his ass. He had been investigating whether or not this woman died of a hardening poison, and if that poison had gotten into the composting system.
    He would use that as his excuse, and then mention that he needed to continue to find cause of death for public health reasons.
    Besides, someone should want to know who was killing clones and putting them into the composting.
    Not that it was illegal, exactly. After all, a dead clone was organic waste, just like rotted vegetables were.
    He shuddered, not wanting to think about it. Maybe someone should tell the Armstrong City Council to ban the composting of any human flesh, be it original or cloned.
    He sighed. He didn’t want to be the one to do it. He’d slip the suggestion into his supervisor’s ear and hope that she would take him up on it.
    He pinged his supervisor, telling her that it was important she contact him right away.
    Then he bent over the body, determined to get as much work done as possible before someone shut this investigation down entirely.

 
     
     
     
    FOURTEEN
     
     
    DERICCI SAT IN her aircar in the part of Armstrong Police Department parking lot set aside for detectives. She hadn’t used the vehicle all day, but it was the most private place she could think of to watch the footage Deshin had given her.
    She didn’t want to take the footage inside the station until she’d had a chance to absorb it. She wasn’t sure how relevant it was, and she wasn’t sure what her colleagues would think of it.
    Or, if she were being truthful with herself, she didn’t want Lake anywhere near this thing. He had some dubious connections, and he might just confiscate the