The 'scent bar' was a place whose name translated to 'Gentle Tranquility'. Oscar expected the place to be like a rave but using scent sprays instead of strobing lights. Instead, the atmosphere was tranquil and more like a tearoom. One wall of the space consisted of a large screen projecting a scene of a sunlit plain of gently waving tall grass.

The interior held lots of circular tables, some of which were occupied by Dorarizin. Each table held several large blown-glass objects that looked like big brandy snifters. Instead of liquor, each snifter held a small amount of colored oil. Several Dorarizin at one of the tables passed around one of the snifters, each taking a turn to inhale from its mouth.

As soon as Oscar entered, every eye in the place turned to stare. For the most part, those stares were just curious but he could tell a few Dorarizin looked annoyed. He ignored them all as a Dorarizin wearing an apron came bustling over. He was polite enough to only give Oscar a surprised double-take before welcoming them.

"[Hello and welcome to Gentle Tranquility. May I show you to a table?]"

"[Sadly, I'm here on business,]" said Ngralh. "[But my colleagues would like to sample your wares. Is Kergrakh-of-Rrelren here?]"

The manager nodded towards a table in the far corner, where Kergrakh's gray-and-white figure sat and sniffed at the glass held in one paw. Oscar was surprised to see that Zreshak, the Gamma of the pack, sat at a separate table nearby and faced away from her pack-sister. He wasn't an expert (yet) on xeno body language, but the two seemed distinctly chilly with each other.

Each sister also had a fist-sized shiny metal sphere hovering near their respective shoulders; the captain's speculation about the Rrelren using camera drones was correct.

Myyreh and Oscar followed the manager to a table against the wall opposite the viewscreen while Ngralh loped off to talk with Kergrakh. The manager paused as he realized that the table was too high off the ground for Oscar, even if he stood. The Dorarizin didn't really use chairs either, since they squatted on their haunches like a gorilla when at rest.

"Don't worry," he said to the rueful-looking Dorarizin. "Do you have a spare crate in the back I can sit on?"

The manager fetched one in record time, and it was even high enough for Oscar to rest his elbows on the table. Myyreh sat on her haunches next to him.

"[I take it this is your first time in one of these places,]" she said with a grin.

"Oh yeah. It's a lot more...frilly than I expected."

Myyreh shrugged. "[Yes, I normally don't frequent scent bars this fancy.]"

"So it's just for smelling things?"

"['Just smelling'? Scent is the path to keeping us Dorarizin sane.]" She waved at the view of nature across from them. "[If you live on a starship or on a colony like this, there's no 'outside' to go running in and feel the wind in your face.]"

Oscar supposed that made sense. The Dorarizin were pack hunters, built to run for miles in pursuit of prey. Indulging those instincts in a place like this would keep them centered.

The manager returned with a tray bearing several snifters. "[The daily selection. We also have wine and food as well, would you care for some?]"

"Sure. Ah, do you know if any of it is safe for humans?"

"[Your drone can tell you,]" said Myyreh. "[It has a built-in scan function.]"

There was a commotion in the far corner as Kergrakh stood, snarling down into Ngralh's face. "[I will not be accosted like this!]" she yelled. "[If you have any questions issue a formal request through our advocate!]"

She stormed out of the bar with her tail frizzed out in anger, giving the manager a frosty glare as she did so. Ngralh followed at a more leisurely pace as he exchanged looks with Myyreh.

In the meantime Oscar paid attention to Zreshak, who watched her pack-sister go with an amused air.

"Do we follow them?" he asked Myyreh.

Myyreh shook her snout. "[Ngralh just sent me a message via implant. He's pretty sure that she's heading for the pack's apartment, so he'll track her just to make sure. We're to keep with our subject and engage her in conversation if possible. In the meantime...]"

She picked up one of the snifters and inhaled. "[Ooh, this is nice. Open plain with a rainstorm coming on.]" Myrreh handed the snifter to Oscar. "[Care to try?]"

"It'll be wasted on me, but sure." He had to hold the snifter in both hands as he carefully put his nose over the lip of it and inhaled. "It smells...fresh."

Myyreh gave a Dorarizin snicker. "[That's all?]"

"It's a little bit like fresh-cut grass? That's all I get out of it. You know our sense of smell stinks compared to yours. Pun fully intended."

"[Hmmm.]" She took the snifter back from him and gave it another long inhale. "[Wow, this is really nice. I'll have to start using the classier establishments.]" Myyreh set the snifter down and gestured at a bare section of the tabletop, which lit up and displayed a line of alien glyphs. "[I can order food for us, but as for wine I'm afraid I don't know as much.]"

Zreshak was in the middle of sniffing one of her own scent selections when her ear twitched over towards them upon hearing Myyreh's words. The Dorarizin stood, and Oscar blinked in surprise at how short she was. Zreshak was shorter than Myyreh, who was herself on the smaller side. The Gamma was probably no taller than 8 feet 5 inches.

She sashayed over to their table while Myyreh stared at her with laser-like focus. Zreshak wore a long sleeveless vest that looked a bit like a lab coat. Her fur was white, like an artic fox, while her eyes were a bright emerald green, and she regarded Oscar with amusement as she spoke.

"[I'm familiar with their wine selection. May I join you?"]

Myyreh and Oscar exchanged a look, and she nodded at him in a clear message of 'It's your call'.

He waved at a spot across from him. "Sure, have a seat."

Zreshak seated herself as her drone moved to hover just over her shoulder. "[Just to make things clear, I won't answer any questions about any possible criminal accusations unless our advocate is present.]"

Oscar leaned back a little. His main job was to sniff out just how involved Zreshak was in the smuggling done by her pack, and he figured that goal could be accomplished by chatting about mundane things. "Fine by me. I'm just here to learn more about your culture anyway."

"[Oh? Then this establishment is an excellent place to start. Now, as to food and drink...]" Zreshak regarded the displayed menu and tapped a few glyphs. "[Those should be compatible with human anatomy...I think. You should have your drone scan it to make sure.]" Zreshak looked up at Myyreh. "[So what shall we talk about?]"

Myyerh nodded towards Oscar. "[Ask him.]"

The scientist now looked to Oscar with a raised ear. "[So you're a true member of their crew? Not a mascot?]"

Oscar grinned, making sure to show his teeth. "Yes, I'm a true crew member. Still a trainee, if I'm honest."

"[Very well, Trainee. Ask anything you'd like. I may answer.]"

"Well, there is always the standard 'what do you do for a living'."

Zreshak smiled as she picked up one of the other snifters from the table. "[It's complicated, but the idea is simple. I'm developing methods that will allow us to mine deeper into [Pak'Tahl's] interior.]" She sniffed and sighed with pleasure.

"What does that one smell like?" asked Oscar.

She passed the snifter to him, and he inhaled. "I'm smelling a faint bit of pine?"

Zreshak chuckled. "[It's an evergreen forest at midday with a herd of glrnada in the distance. And all you smell is 'a bit of pine?']"

"[They're practically nose-blind,]" said Myyreh.

Oscar set the snifter down. "To get back on topic, Zreshak, maybe you can answer another silly question."

"[Oh, I doubt it's silly.]"

"It might be. Remember, I'm a barbarian from the wastelands. Why don't you just inject a bunch of nanotech into this moon and let it do its thing to extract all the metals you could want?"

"[Hmm. That's not a silly question, but it assumes that nanotech is magic. For proper self-replication the nanobots require very specific elements in specific ratios. Rare earths are usually a problem; they're never present in enough concentration. Not to mention as one goes deeper underground the temperature goes up, and with high enough temperatures nanobots stop working.]"

The manager arrived at that point, bearing another tray with filled wine glasses alongside a plate of smoked meats. The glasses, as with the snifters, were almost comically over-sized for Oscar. He again had to use both hands to handle his wine as he set it front of him. "Jeeves, check this stuff out would you?"

A brief grid of red lines appeared over the table, and Jeeves beeped. "[The items on the table do not contain any [Human] toxins or allergens.]"

One of Zreshak's ears perked up quizzically. "[You named your drone?]"

"Sure! Dude's helping me out, he's gotta have a name.]" Oscar reached over and gave a pat to Jeeves' metal flank. The drone did not even beep in response.

Zreshak looked over in evident confusion towards Myyreh, who just gave a casual shrug in reply. The scientist rallied and sipped at her wine with a newly-casual air. "[So, to continue with your question, even if you somehow could use nanotech to access every seam of metal inside the planet, at the end all you would have is a pile of nanobots. You'd have to then spend a lot more energy and time breaking them back down to retrieve the metal for other purposes. My research involves nanotech in part, but not in as direct a fashion as you think.]"

"Got it. You're trying to increase output while using the minimal possible amount of drones and nanotech."

The scientist pointed a furry finger at him in a 'you got it' gesture, then picked up a 'small' piece of meat the size of a hardback novel.

Oscar chose another, as did Myyreh, and they ate in silence for a while. The meat was tasty but a little chewier than he'd expected, and he felt a little ridiculous having to gnaw off little bits while his two dining companions ate their own portions in a few bites. The other patrons in the place kept glancing over to look at him eating, and Oscar had to tamp down his irritation. Sure, he was a small alien eating food that was a little too big for him. But why would that be so interesting?

While they ate, Oscar's comm bead crackled with Ngralh's voice. "[Kergrakh just went into their apartment. I'm heading back to the suite. Grawreh's on her way here, and I don't want her to catch me standing around.]" A little flicker in Myyreh's eyes was the only thing that indicated she'd received the same communication.

There was another ear-crackle a little while later. This time it was the captain. "[I just finished the first interrogation with Rgratz-of-Arznor. Nothing yet, but I'm sure he'll show his belly after a few more questionings.]"

Zreshak spoke up when she'd finished eating. "[And how about you, [Human]? I mean, I know what you do for a living. But how in the name of the First Pack did a [Human] end up with a Dorarizin investigation team?]"

"I applied for the position." Oscar drank a little more of his wine, which was a lot fruitier than he expected. But it wasn't bad, and didn't taste of too much alcohol. It wouldn't do to get plastered in front of a possible criminal.

"[But why did you want to leave [Earth] in the first place?]"

"Why not? It's a big galaxy and it would be a shame to not go see it while I still could."

Zreshak snorted. "[I'm surprised your people would want to deal with any of us [aliens], given what happened.]" Her green gaze peered at him. "[I might be wrong, but you seem a little older. Were you alive when the Karnakians discovered you?]"

Oscar bit back a nasty comment about her calling it a 'discovery'. Instead he simply nodded as he drank more wine.

"[So why deal with those who wronged you? Is [Earth] that bad?]"

"No, Earth is fine, it's just..." Oscar figured he could tell her the truth. It wouldn't cost him anything and it might make her drop her guard.

"I had a nice little place." he continued. "A bar on the beach. Er, I'm assuming you know what a beach is."

Zreshak nodded while sporting a very toothy grin. "[I've only been in simulations, but I know what they're like.]"

"Well, the beach is where I went after the dust settled from our so-called 'discovery'."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"[You fled there?]"

"'Fled' is a strong term, but yeah." He noticed that Myyreh was also staring at him intently. "I just couldn't keep doing what I was doing."

"[Were you afraid?]" asked Myyreh. Her tone was somewhere between curious and challenging.

Oscar gave a sad chuckle. "Nah. I've been scared lots of times in the past. This wasn't fear, it was worse. I felt useless."

That last word surprised Zreshak. "[Useless?]"

"Sure. I was a member of the most advanced, strongest military on the planet. Our original mission was to protect our country. And that mission got diluted to hell and gone over the years, but it was still our core goal. And then, the very first time that our country actually did get invaded and we were needed to actually do our fuckin' job..." He snapped his fingers. "Bam. No contest. We couldn't do shit."

Oscar looked at both curious Dorarizin. "So I quit. Went off and tended bar for decades. Kept myself in shape and had a lot of fun times with the ladies. But it was all just to keep myself busy and not think about it."

He shrugged and sipped more wine. "And then, one fine day, the universe decides to burn down my bar. I figured it was a sign for me to, ah, 'get back on the horse'. I don't know if that idiom translates, but it means I had to take control and try to do something constructive with my life." He waved at the table. "So here I am."

"[Here you are,]" mused Zeshrak. "[I must confess, I've never felt like that. I've always had a goal firmly in mind. Still, I can appreciate how not having any would be...disquieting.]"

Myyreh opened her mouth to add to the conversation, but at that moment Oscar's comm crackled again. It was the captain again, but she sounded much less relaxed than before.

"[Myrreh, [Oscar], get your tails to the Rrelren apartment. Ngralh will send you the coordinates and we'll rendezvous with you there.]"

Oscar knew why the captain sounded stressed when she spoke her next words.

"[Hrzharh is dead. It looks like murder.]"

Oscar and Myyreh looked at each other. "[Sorry, we need to be going right now,]" said Myyreh. "[I'll get the tab.]"

Zreshak's ears went flat against her head. The scientist was not stupid; she knew something was up. "[What? What happened?]" Her amused look was now replaced with one of fear. "[Something happened, didn't it? Did something happen to one of my pack?]" Her voice rose a little in panic at the last word.

Oscar hopped off of his makeshift chair as Myyreh rose. He looked up at the panicked, white-furred Dorarizin and figured he wasn't a big enough asshole to just blow her off.

"Get in touch with your pack," he said. "You're gonna need each other." She stared in horror as he turned and jogged out of the scent bar.

Out in the corridor, Myyreh stared off into space for a bit then nodded. "[I have the directions to the Rrelren dwelling. With your permission, I'll carry you.]" Before Oscar could speak, she touched his shoulder and gave him a sad little smile. "[I'm not implying that you're useless, but I will get us there much faster.]"

Oscar sighed and nodded. Before he could blink he found himself dangling in the cradle of her arms like a bride being carried across the threshold.

"[Hang onto my neck as well,]" she said.

Oh great, just when this couldn't make him feel more like a little kid. But Oscar leaned in and got one arm around her neck just as she took off.

----------------------------------------

Oscar knew from past experience that seeing copious amounts of human blood on video was nothing like seeing and smelling it in real life. And now he knew that held true even when the blood wasn't human. Thanks to the safety videos he'd been subjected to at Zephyr Station, he'd seen plenty of pictures of Dorarizin blood.

Now a bright blue spray of the real thing extended away from Hrzharh's crumpled body. The wound that had killed him was obvious; the front of his skull was deeply indented, exposing his brain. One of his eyes was crushed into pulp, and the intact eye stared at the ceiling as if he couldn't believe he was dead.

It was obvious which instrument had killed Hrzharh. At the end of the trail of gore was the baseball-sized sphere of a camera drone. Its dark silvery surface lay coated with more blue blood, along with fur and bits of brain tissue.

Oscar looked up and saw that the apartment was now infested with his team's camera drones. They were everywhere, scanning the position of everything in the room including the team themselves.

The place looked pretty nice, with pastel-colored walls that flowed into the floor and ceiling in a manner that made it feel a little like the inside of a civilized cave. It smelled a lot less nice, since the coppery reek of Hrzharh's blood was mixed with a more perfumed stink that he couldn't identify.

At the moment, Oscar stood well out of the way against one wall. Bgrarh knelt and examined the camera drone and the surrounding blood splatter while Kgrashak, the medic, looked over the body itself.

At the wall farthest from the entrance there was another, smaller splotch of blood. That was Kergrakh's blood, or so he'd been told. Another camera drone lay near the splotch, although this one was only covered with blood. Egrweh was giving this second drone a careful scan with a flashlight-shaped tool. Beyond that was an open door, one of several leading out of the main room.

Ngralh and the captain were in the middle of an intense four-way whispered conversation at the door to the apartments. The other two participants were Grawreh and Chief Kergrth. The Alpha looked like a wreck; her furry cheeks were matted with tears and it looked as if she'd torn at her own clothing in grief. The chief already had a comforting hand on her shoulder, and to Oscar's surprise he saw the captain reach out and grasp Grawreh's shoulder as well.

Grawreh nodded and she loped off with her tail almost tucked between her legs. After another few brief words with the captain and XO, the chief trailed after her. Ngralh walked over to Oscar as the captain turned and surveyed the scene.

"Well Nate, what's the story with jurisdiction?" asked Oscar. Bgrarh stood and moved over to the other blood splatter while a camera drone followed him.

"[They've agreed to let us handle the investigation into Hrzharh's death,]" said Ngralh. "[We have a lot more expertise in this than anyone here.]"

They both looked at the body for a bit. "How's Kergrakh doing?"

The XO sighed. "[She's stable, but still unconscious. Grawreh was the one who found her...and Hrzharh. She says the door was locked. Egwreh checked and the door's log doesn't show anyone other than Kergrakh entering in the last few hours.]"

"Are there any cameras in the outside hallways?"

"[A few. We should have the relevant video in a few [minutes].]"

"So if nobody came or left, then it looks as if the two camera drones went nuts and tried to crush their skulls. Succeeding, in Hrzharh's case."

Before Ngralh could reply Bgrarh came bounding over. "[Oh, [Oscar], I forgot to give you this! You'll need it since this is your first case..." He started rummaging in a pouch at his side.

Oscar stared up at Bgrarh's deerstalker and wondered if he was about to get a hat of his own. But instead, Bgrarh withdrew a small glass-and-metal object from his pouch. The device looked like a toy as he pinched it between two huge fingers and held it out to Oscar.

The human didn't even think about scoffing as he took the magnifying glass from Bgrarh. It was sized for a human, after all, and the tool was one of the few things around here that didn't make him feel like a child. He smiled up at Bgrarh. "Thanks, Benny."

Bgrarh smiled in reply and loped off to continue his work.

The captain spoke from her position by the door. "[Well, Trainee, what do you make of this? Feel free to talk aloud.]"

The question made Oscar think of Garrett, the wiry old coot who'd mentored him during his first year in CID. He could almost hear the man's cigarette-roughened voice behind him.

Okay, smartass, let's see how smart you really are.

He stepped away from the wall. "We should start with the obvious, which is the apparent murder weapon. Emma, did you get any information off of the two camera drones?"

The engineer stood from where she knelt next to the patch of Kergrakh's blood. "[No, they're both fried. Memory and internals are a total loss.]"

"[I found one claw-mark on the drone next to Hrzharh,]" added Bgrarh. "[The scratch has micro-fragments which correspond to the particular metal concentration in his claws.]"

"So he maybe caught sight of the drone coming at him and threw up a paw." Oscar looked at the splayed body. "Not in time, though. Emma, is it possible to rewire a camera drone to attack like that?"

"[It's possible. It would take considerable skill; there's a lot of safety interlocks to prevent such a thing.]"

"As a follow-up question, could a drone go fast enough to do lethal damage?"

"[They're certainly hard enough. Their shells are made out of iridium, and if our hypothetical hacker made the drone use all of its power at once...yes, it's barely possible.]"

"And now my final question. Could such rewiring be done remotely, or would you have to have physical access to the drone?"

Egwreh gave a few thoughtful clicks. "[I honestly don't know. My instinct is that such extensive reprogramming via wireless is impossible, but someone might have discovered a back door that isn't in the technical bulletins yet."

"So the killer reprogrammed the drones in person or, much less likely, did it remotely."

Rgrarshok stood watching Oscar with her arms folded and a small smile on her face. Oscar felt a little bead of sweat on his neck; he hoped he wasn't coming across as some kind of primitive screwhead suggesting they read goat entrails to identify the murderer. He twirled the magnifying glass in one meaty hand like a fidget spinner; the action helped to calm himself.

He looked at the body again. "Next we need to look at the obvious suspect, the survivor. How likely is it that Kergrakh is the one who did this?"

The team looked at each other, and for the first time Oscar saw them all look uneasy. "[It would not be unheard of for denmates to attack each other,]" replied the captain. "[But it would have to be due to some horrible transgression on Hrzharh's part.]"

"Something like Green smuggling, say? Maybe Kergrakh found out about it."

Bgrarh shook his head. "[No, everyone in the pack knows about it, even if they aren't directly involved. Denmates can't keep secrets from each other. Scent alone would give away any transgression.]"

Oscar turned to the medic. "We should still make sure. Kate, you should examine Kergrakh and see if her head wound could be self-inflicted."

The medic nodded. "[I had a quick look before they took her away. It's very unlikely she could have done it to herself, but I'll double-check.]"

"How was she found?"

In response, Kgrashak gestured at the rear door with the second pool of blood. "[Grawreh said she was halfway out of that door, face-down.]"

"Have the drones mapped that next room?"

"[Yes, it's all logged for evidence. It looks as if she was indulging in some more powerful scents than what they had at the bar.]"

Oscar didn't understand until he walked over, detoured around the blood, and poked his head in the door. Beyond was a little room that looked like a Zen meditation space. The floor was a woven mat of straw-like fibers, and against the far wall were numerous glass jars filled with colored oils. Just inside the room was a tipped-over snifter, and the damp patch of straw next to the snifter gave off the pungent, flowery odor that he'd smelled earlier.

"That is strong for sure," he said. "And I've got the worst nose here. You guys must really be suffering."

"[Eh, we're getting used to it,]" said Ngralh. "[That particular scent is called 'hgrun' and it's used for calming the emotions.]"

"So after leaving the scent bar, Kergrakh comes back here in a huff and tries to chill out." Oscar turned and visualized what might have happened. "She's in that room, sniffing her chill-juice and muttering unprintable things about the damn cops from the Senate hassling her. Hrzharh is out here and lets out a warning cry when he sees his drone attack. She hears that, or she hears the thump when it smashes his skull. So she gets up and starts walking out the door when her own drone attacks her. Maybe she moved just as it attacked, so it only got in a glancing blow."

The human made a tumbling gesture with one arm as he pictured Kergrakh's fall. "So she goes down, boom, but she's not dead. I'm assuming that the drone would be toast by this point?"

Egwreh nodded. "[Our perpetrator must have set their internals to burn up after the attack. Their power would be drained anyway.]"

"Got it. So that's why her drone didn't do a follow-up attack and make sure." The human pointed at the main door in front of them all. "Is that the only door into the apartments?"

Bgrarh nodded.

"How hard would it be to bypass that lock?" asked Oscar.

"[Not very hard,]" said Bgrarh. "[Someone with moderate skill could do it.]"

"And the corridor videos?"

Egwreh gestured to a blank expanse of wall, and one of the camera drones came floating over in response to a command from her implant. "[Our collating program should have retrieved them by now...]"

The drone shot out a fan of light against the bare wall, and a matrix of ten video screens appeared. All of them were filled with nothing but static.

Oscar rubbed his forehead. "All of them out of commission? What are the odds of that?"

"[Very unlikely,]" said the captain. Her smile rose into a half-grin. "[So what does that imply, Trainee?]"

Oscar spun the magnifying glass again. "Right. We'll need to examine the cameras, but for now it looks like they were deactivated. Doing it through the network might be detected or leave a trace...could you knock the cameras out with some sort of device?"

"[Oh, sure,]" replied Egwreh. "[You could make a little handheld gadget to do that. It would be illegal to have it, of course. But using the device would be as simple as pointing it and pressing a button.]"

"I'm assuming we found no such device here," said Oscar. "Kergrakh could have zapped the cameras on her way back to the apartment so as to make it look like someone else came in."

"[For what purpose?]" asked Ngralh. "[Why make it look like a break-in? The drones were already here.]"

"To confuse us. That's assuming she's the one who killed Hrzharh, of course...." The human stopped his magnifying glass in mid-spin as he had another thought. "Ooh, this camera-zapping device, could you use it to take out a camera drone?"

"[If you tweaked its output a little, you sure could,]" said Egwreh. "[Killing a drone would be lot easier than trying to reprogram it into a murder weapon.]"

The captain scratched at one ear. "[Okay, so if his drone didn't kill Hrzharh, then what did our hypothetical intruder use?]"

"They could still use the drone," said Oscar. "But in a much more primitive way. Could a Dorarizin throw a drone hard enough to cause that kind of head trauma?"

"[Certainly,]" said Kgrashak. "[We should double-check the drones to make sure there's no foreign skin cells or other leavings on them.]"

Oscar tapped the magnifying glass on his chin. "Let's run through that scenario. The intruder comes to the door, zapping cameras as they go, and bypasses the lock. Or more likely Hrzharh knows them and lets them in, and the intruder wiped the log afterwards. However they got in, they then zapped Hrzharh's drone, picked it up, and threw it at him."

Ngralh turned to regard the second pool of blood. "[So Kergrakh hears Hrzharh yell, she comes to the door and...our mystery person does the same thing to her?]"

"Yep. After the first killing our intruder runs over and waits just by the door for Kergrakh to walk in. She sees Hrzharh's body, runs forward without looking around, and the intruder knocks her down and bashes her in the back of the head with the other drone. No, wait, that doesn't work. She'd smell them first, wouldn't she?"

"[She'd just been sniffing a bunch of hgrun,]" said Ngralh. "[Her nose would be useless for a while.]"

Kgrashak nodded. "[It's clear I'll need to examine Kergrakh's injury. With your permission, Captain, I'll go do that right now.]"

"[Granted. Keep in contact, and if they give you any nonsense refer them to me.]"

The medic bowed and jogged out of the apartment. Rgrarshok put her paws on her hips and smiled.

"[Well, Trainee, we have three scenarios. How do we narrow them down?]"

Oscar blew out a breath. "Right. Scenario one is that someone reprogrammed the drones. Either the murderer set them to go off at a certain time, or somehow sent a remote command. If it's the latter, we should look for evidence of that command. Plus there's the motive angle. The killer didn't affect all of the Rrelren pack's drones, since the remaining three didn't have theirs go nuts on 'em. So maybe Kergrakh and Hrzharh were the only targets, and if we can figure out why that might tell us who."

Her voice was amused, if still a little condescending. "[Not bad. And the other two scenarios?]"

"Scenario two is that Kergrakh is the murderer and tried to make it look like someone else either broke in or reprogrammed the drones or both. Right now, all we can do is wait for Kate to make her diagnosis of Kergrakh's head injury. That leaves scenario three, our mystery intruder. If the drones don't show any evidence of a third party, then the only thing that would prove option three would be some other evidence of their presence.]"

"[Yes, that would be nice, wouldn't it?]"

From the captain's smug tone, Oscar knew there was something he was missing. He spun the magnifying glass again in his hand and pictured the murder scene as a black box. Don't worry about what went on inside the apartment, just look at all of the inputs and outputs...

He made a disgusted grunt. "Aw, shit. I forgot we're on an airless moon. This place has its own air recycling, doesn't it?"

The captain bowed. "[Full marks, Trainee. Yes, a large apartment like this would have its own life support system. Tied into the main colony, of course, but capable of functioning separately in case of emergency. Bgrarh, would you please check the intake filter?]"

It took a little bit of searching, but they finally found the manhole-sized intake grill for the apartments hidden in a corner. Bgrarh pulled it off and directed one of the camera drones to go in first.

"[It'll record the position of the filter for the evidence log,]" he explained to Oscar. In deference to their implant-less human colleague, another drone hovered nearby and projected the first drone's view into nearby space. The video showed the dun-colored metal walls of a duct, one that Oscar figured he might be able to squeeze through if he really needed to.

"[Then we'll pull the filter out and I'll use our lab on board the Claw to do a detailed analysis of both it and the drones,]" continued Bgrarh. "[Any foreign [DNA] on them should tell us if someone else was in here...]"

He trailed off as the filter came into view. In the tiny drone's field of view the filter looked like a huge white expanse. And in the center of that expanse, a small feather sat pressed against the filter material by the outgoing air flow.

It was a feather with a very familiar pearlescent blue color.

The team all stared for a while at the image, until the captain finally sighed. "[Oh Tk'Serk, you utter fool. What have you done?]"