The next day had the Elysian’s Breath relocate at one of the red gas giant’s other moon. This one had a large ocean that covered most of the surface and the main planned excursion was a trip down to a frigid island where there was shopping, ancient alien castles to explore and plenty of deep sea fishing or alien whale watching.

  Shilo looked it over again and then pulled up a display of the planet. “Not much for tropical locations. The ocean must be extremely salty to not be frozen, but this island seems warmer. If you don’t mind the lack of shopping.”

  “That looks lovely, but it’s not on the list of options.”

  Shilo said, “I’d fly down there myself. I looked it up last night. I’m allowed to fly my personal ship.”

  A Sowbu at a nearby breakfast table sharing the table with a Hoshaness, both dressed in business attire, spoke up. “Is that the old police cruiser? It looked slick with those soft curves and smooth lines.”

  Shilo coughed. “Yes. That’s mine.”

  “Beautiful. I’m a collector myself. Is that a hundred years old?”

  “Only seventy. Although I customized it to bring in some of the older style.”

  The Sowbu adjusted his tie using his quick hands. “Lovely. I’ll be honest, I searched for one for sale and sent out a bid looking to purchase one without any luck. I have my assistants working overtime. I won’t stop until I have one in my collection. Unless you’d be interested in selling yours?”

  Shilo was still confused if they had four hands or two. “No thanks. I’m very content with mine. I wish you the best of luck in your search. If you don’t mind, we will be going now. I would not be interested to know the fuel cost to catch the Elysian should we miss our required return time.” Shilo stood to leave.

  JoLane flipped through the brochure once more and pulled up at the air docks. “Seem’s, they have the excursions delayed by a couple hours.”

  Shilo nodded. “All the more reason we should take my ride.”

  The Sowbu grumbled. “Delayed. I can’t believe it. I was looking forward to fishing and with that kind of delay, we will miss the best time. Sorry for eaves dropping. Name’s Halpo. If you change your mind about the spaceship, I’ll offer premium credits. You’d be able to stay on this cruise liner for six, no, nine months.”

  Shilo shook his head. “It’s not for sale. I’m Shilo Zander.”

  JoLane and Shilo took the elevator down to the docks. A large line of angry guests was forming to discuss the delay. It seemed strange as the ship to take them down to the excursion looked ready.

  “I’d like to take my ship out.”

  The Elysian’s Breath working, taking complaints about the delay, broke away from the angry group to address Shilo. He scanned Shilo’s pass. “I’m sorry. During a refueling operation, there was trouble with a fuel line leak.”

  “What!” Shilo cracked his knuckles and his eye twitched. “What did you do to my ship? How hard is it to refuel a ship?”

  “No worries. The matter is being investigated, and the repairs are being completed as we speak.”

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “I want to see my ship.” Shilo stormed off searching for the docks, trying to remember which airlock he was stationed at. He noticed four empty airlocks in a row. It wasn’t here. He’d parked on this side for sure and remembered struggling to park alongside a crowded section. There hadn’t been four empty spots. The staff member had followed him out to the empty airlocks. “They report it, along with three other ships have been taken to a repair facility. Don’t worry.”

  “Why wasn’t I notified?” Shilo scrambled to pull his tablet out and ping his ship. “And why isn’t my tracking transponder reporting the ship's location?”

  “Please calm down. I’m sure that’s all standard policy. My apologies for the ship repair being done without them notifying you. This is all rather unusual.” The staff member's tablet pinged, and he looked at it. “Oh good. The shuttle to the moon has been cleared. I know you wanted to fly yourself down, but I can make sure you have premium seating on the shuttle.”

  JoLane said, “I’m sure they are taking good care of your ship. Let’s not let it ruin our day.”

  Shilo waved his fist at the worker. “I want to be notified if my ship is returned at the earliest chance.”

  JoLane pulled on his arm. “He’s just working here. Shilo. Be nice. The staff here wasn’t the mechanic that caused a fuel leak.”

  Shilo frowned but decided he wasn’t going to ruin JoLane’s vacation. “Fine. Let’s see these premium seating.”

  “Very well. I recommend the whale watching. Couples always enjoy that.”

  Speaking together, Shilo and JoLane said, “Oh, we’re not a couple.”

  “My mistake. Please, this way to the shuttle.”

  The shuttle down went smoothly. Halpo was near enough to see them and gave them a wave and mimed pulling on a fishing pool. “I see you changed your mind.”

  They enjoyed the morning despite the late start with the shuttle and were mildly confused when local police stopped to inspect the shuttle.

  JoLane pointed out the police clustered by the shuttle. “What’s that about?”

  “No idea. Sorry we are here. I was looking forward to a warmer, less crowded island.”

  “Stop worrying about your ship. You’ve apologized twelve times. I’m sure they will have it repaired and back to the Elysian before we ship out to the next gas giant.”

  A Gunk pulled on Shilo’s arm. “Did you say they broke your ship as well? They claimed mine was scratched and offered to repair the paint.”

  Shilo asked, “Did they tell you that before this morning?”

  “No. Only when I requested to fly it after the delay.”

  “Did you hear why they had a delay?” asked JoLane.

  The Gunk looked around, then pointed to one of the groups of police clustered by the shuttle. “Only rumors. But considering the homicide unit is here, I think the rumors that a security guard was killed last night.”

  Shilo looked at the group of police which had covered the patches, showing they were indeed homicide. Trying to be discreet for the tourists. Two other officers in plain clothing were near the group. A homicide and missing spaceships. What were they doing with the shuttle? Unless the crime happened on the shuttle. The number of people leaving the shuttle had seemed light to him. One of the rear passenger sections had possibly been sealed off. Shilo walked over to the police. “I’m detective Shilo Zander,” He quickly flashed his old lapel pin and for better impact pulled Danny Richards identification out quickly flashing it around and stepped back onto the shuttle. “This is why the shuttled delayed from the Elysian’s Breath. I take it the body was removed.”

  “Yes. Um who are you?”

  “I’m a detective. Is this in relationship with the broken spaceship aboard the Elysian?”

  “Broke? No. You mean stolen.”

  “Stolen. Yes of course. They are reported as broke or vandalized to their owners while the search is on to find the spaceships. Are there any leads on the missing ships?”

  “Not yet. Don't you read the reports. No. Nothing.” The police officer guarding the shuttle followed Shilo. They walked to the back were the pool of blood was all the evidence remaining in the last section of the shuttle’s passenger compartments. “The security guard of the Elysian’s died here, but he was attacked when patrolling the Elysian’s air docks. Security cameras were not working.”

  “The memory was full. Some glitch prevented it from writing over old files.”

  “All the existing data was marked at the highest level of importance. An easy trick for a hacker to do quickly. There will be a log of the change in the Elysian’s system. Likely that modification was deleted from the security log but an audit of the Elysian’s computers will show a deletion of the modification.”

  “Of course. I’m sure our department has thought of that, but I’ll pass the thought along to them.” The officer left in a rush to relay’s Shilo’s idea.