---

Marons emerged from the lift, mentally sighing to himself and heading back towards his bar. He was going to need something to comfort him, he knew it; he just hoped he had enough time before he had to take over from the person he'd left in charge. Sweet girl, a bit bad at numbers but she got large tips and people tended to come back to see her.

Humming quietly to herself Rosie made her way towords the bar, streching her wairly back as she read through some reports on some deep resinance scans that had been taken just before she left the controll deck. The humming helping other people know she was moving and coming through so they moved out of her way,and also her ears could pick up the slightest change in pitch to allert her to obsticles. sitting down at the bar she flicked through some more pages and make a slight squeeking noise, placing Archy on the table next to her. "Blimy, no need to bite"

Marons had arrived a second before and excused the girl behind the bar, turning around just in time to have Rosie sit down in front of him... and her loud squeeking pet to be placed on the table. "No pets on the counter please" he wrote on his slate, holding it up for Rosie to read... before tapping loudly on the desk so she'd put down the paper and read what he'd put on his slate.

Looking up at the tapping noise and reading quickly. "Sorry, is it ok if I put him on paper, on the table? I should have asked, Im sorry." Picking archy up carefully and waiting for a reply, taking in the... being infront of her and smiling. Finding him utterly fasinating and saying nothing.

Carefully scraping the slate clean with his hand, Marons scribbled the words "Only if he stays on the paper and doesn't have an accident." Another wipe, he was wondering what was going on with all the people just... staring at him today; first the biologist, now this woman. "What do you fancy? Or do you want a menu?" Marons presented to Rosie, hoping she was a paying customer.

Placing archy carefully on her scans and laughing softly at the accident part of it, she fished out her wallet. "I'll have a menu please, I promise Archibold will behave." Smiling, none too sure whether the man could see it or feel it as he didnt have eyes. Looking back at her scans and hapily just getting on with things. "Oh and could I have some lemonade, if you have it. and maybe a cricket? only if you have them. Its just for Archy"

Marons nodded, reached for his pad... and found it wasn't there. He knocked on the shutter behind him, scribbled on the slate and showed it to the girl who appeared as the shutter slid back. The girl extended a hand and pointed towards a place beside the till, where Marons reached and plucked out a paper pad and a pencil. He sketched quickly, drawing a tall drink and a smal insect... After a short pause he wrote what they were on the paper as well before handing it over to the girl behind the shutter. The shutter closed and Marons fished under the desk, finding the menus after a moment and handing one to Rosie.

Nodding a thanks and realising it might not have translated she added softly "Thank you." flicking through it and giggling slightly at her stomach made an odd rumbling gurgle. "Seems I am hungrier than I antisipated" talking to no one in particular she smiled at some of the menue choises. "Can I have the Grimorian salad with extra Armadilo? thank you" placing the menue infront of her and stroking Archy gently before getting back to her scans, pulling another one from a folder she carried everywhere.

Marons scratched a drawing of this down onto the next piece of paper and passed it through just as a lemonade and a dead grasshopper on a plate was passed to him. Handing them over carefully, it was surprising that the fragile looking glass didn't shatter in his massive hands. Maybe this person would be a regular.

Taking the grass hopper and placing it infront of Archy, Rosie smiled up at the man, sipping from her drink. "Oh thats perfect, thank you." Fishing out her money and counting it up. She hapily handed it over to the man. "Thats for the food too, I have no idea how much you charge for the Cricket. How much was it?" Handing over some coins and a note placing it in the mans hand.

Considering it was one piece of an ingredient of a much larger meal Marons simply shrugged and opened the till, carefully arranging everything around in his own special way before handing Rosie her change. The grasshopper was just left free of charge. Marons took a step back from the bar, there were very few people in today and if anyone needed him he'd hear it before they really said anything, so he gave Rosie some room before her food came.

Looking up at the patron for a second and thinking before speeking softly "I hope you dont mind me asking, but what kind of Clay are you? It slightly resembles terracota." Effectionatly stroking Archy's little head as he chewed on a cricket leg. "It if ts too personal I appologise"

Marons was about to put chalk to slate before hesitantly lowering it and picking up his pad and pencil, after all this could be quite a long explanation and he wouldn't know when she was done reading one message. "My species comes from a planet with no rotation, the Thrille come from the hot side of the planet that is constantly under the sun, the Possk from the opposite side which gets no light." the sheet was ripped from the book and placed on the desk in front of Rosie, but Marons wasn't done there, he kept scribbling "We evolved differently, the Thrille grew hard skin, almost like rock... but not actually rock. We still have a form of blood inside us, but it under several layers of very thick skin and only a small amount." This too was slid onto the table for Rosie to read "Think of Thille as having the same hides as elephants and rhinos, but compacted tighter and baked under the sun a lot more. After all, we don't shatter like rocks." To emphasise this last point, Marons pointed to the three bullet hole scars across his chest; they had punched into the skin, leaving him pock marked but not broken as a rock would be.

Reading fast and humming softly as she did, putting the last peice of paper down and looking at the bullet wholes. "Oh my... that is fasinating. Also, if I may add, you have acceptionaly neat handwriting for someone with no eyes." smiling and sipping her lemonade again as she left Archy to eat in pease.

"No eyes means massive ears" Marons flapped the cloth covered wing like objects behind his back for show, wiping his slate clean again; he was using it again now the messages were shorter. "Big ears mean acute hearing, acute hearing means I deafen myself every time I try to talk loud enough for humans to hear." another wipe clean, Marons wondering if all the talking today was making his hand white "I grew up on Earth, so I've been writing all my life; if that's your only way of communicating with people you tend to get rather good at it."

Reading quickly and handing him a wet wipe, Rosie giggled and smiled. "Yes, it does make sence that youd be good at it. How silly of me. The wipe is to get the chalk off." folding up her papers and resting Archy back on them afterwords.

Carefully Marons took the wipe from Rosie, cleaning his hands slowly with it; they were big hands however, and while it removed the chalk it also left the wipe bright red. He turned slightly to the shutter a moment before it opened and took Rosie's order from the woman there, placing it gently in front of her; he reached to the side to grasp at... thin air it appeared. He frowned, seemingly disgruntled, then rapped the bar with a now clean knuckle; the till shook, the lemonade trembled in it's glass and several bottles clinked beneath the bar. The more important thing was that the cutlery clanked against each other, allowing him to reach out and fish out the impliments for her to eat; he really hated it when people messed up his filing.

Leaning away as the man wrapped on the counter as to not desterb the vibrations Rosie took the cutlery and smiled. "The wipe is desposable so it can just be put in an insinerator, thank you for the food.... erm, whats your name?" she asked, spiering some Armadilo and salad at the same time.

"Marons" he replied, putting the slate down and turning around, moving down and opening the small garbage chute. He'd get it all picked up later, most of this stuff went to below decks, used as compost to make more of the food.. This stuff could get burnt though. Knowing this place that probably fed the plants as well.

Nodding and smiling softly she watched him for a seccond. "Well thank you, Marons." Rosie added, glad she knew his name now. Hapily tucking into her salad with bairly another word, just a few warnings to Archy to stay on the paper.

Leaning against the wall, Marons stood stock still and waited for someone to want something else. He was feeling a bit tired actually... He supposed no one would notice... Very slowly, very carefully, Marons fell asleep; just a quick mid day nap.

Happily finishing up her meal, Rosie pulled out a small book and took some notes before putting it back in the pocket of her coat. Rumaging around for a seccond and pulling out another book, but this time sitting there and reading through it. Placing archy carefully on her shoulder and filing the scans away.

Marons was stock still, facing forward, not making a noise, as usual. This was why their species had always given people the creeps, they tended to fall asleep at odd hours because they didn't have a natural sleeping pattern, and you could never tell when they were asleep or awake. It seemed like they never slept.

Rosie looked up at the inmoving man. tilting her head a little and leaning forwards in her seat, clearing her throat a bit and smiling "Maron, are you ok?" she was slightly concerned for him cos he looked tierd. But seen as this was the first time she had met the man, she couldnt realy comment.

It took a moment, but Marons head turned to show he was in fact paying attention to Rosie. He nodded slowly, then picked up her plate and finished drink, knocked on the shutter and put them inside when it opened. "I am fine, thank you for asking" he wrote on the slate finally, showing it to Rosie; he knew he shouldn't really fall asleep behind the bar but he had just been so tired...

Smiling and standing up, Rosie packed up her papers and placed Archy on her shoulder. "Its been nice talking to you Maron but I have to get back to the Controll deck, scans wont look after them selves." putting about £10's worth of money on the table for Maron as a tip and walked out with a little wave and left.

Marons gave the woman a small wave, settling back down to sleep again now that the place was practically empty. Today had been an interesting day.

---

It hadn't been that long since the last, a few days at most, he couldn't really remember. The days were blurring together slowly, his time was running out he knew; he had to finish this soon, before everything wound down to it's end. He just needed... one more ingredient. His eyes cast upon Rosie... young enough, intelligent looking, most of all alone... he always picked the ones who were alone. "Excuse me" the man said as he approached Rosie; at least it looked like a man, ish, it was an alien that seemed to give of the "male" vibe about it. Resembling a gelatinous fish like creature, it wore a set of tanks on it's back that led around to a mask across where the mouth and nose should be; they were scattered among the crowd some times, not unique but not common among the people on the ship. One of the most striking things was the pair of overalls however, proudly displaying the fact that the person within them was a member of the engineering deptartment. "Excuse me" he said again, looking almost pleadingly at Rosie "I know it's a nuisence but could you give me a hand? There's a camera down the alley over here, it's broken and I need to take it down, but I forgot my ladder. Could you just... give me a boost or something? It'll only take a moment, I just need to get it down by today or I'll be put on reprimand again."

Blushing slightly Rosie pushed her glasses up her nose and blinked at the man. "Erm, I realy would love to help but I dont know if I could lift you.Im not that strong, maybe I could get it down?" Smiling slightly at the... man, she egnored the slight tugging at her hair that Arcy somtimes did when he was crawling round her shoulders, or trying to get her attention.

Giving a nervous laugh the man looked back at the alley he'd gestured to "I'm afraid I have muscles of water... q-quite litterally" again that nervous laugh, bubbling slightly as it came out "D-don't worry... I'm very light, a-at the very least you c-could help me move a t-trash can around."

Smiling and laughing softly Rosie nodded and smiled "Well, lets see what we can do first. I might be able to pick you up, if not, your right, i could bring a bin around.. Oh! I could ask Maron if I could borrow a chair, for you to stand on. would that help?" turning slightly and gesturing to cafe she just came out of.

The man nodded slightly and pulled out a large tool used for fixing the general small annoyances around the ship "S-sure... I'll be waiting in there." He nodded back towards the alley, giving Rosie a small wave and heading back looking purposefully at the back of it.

Heading over to Marons and sticking her head round the door, Rosie smiled at the owner "Could I borrow a chair? Ill bring it back, its just I need to help the maintanance man and he cant reach so I thought to ask for a chair." smiling hopefully at the man and shuffling back into the shop again.

Marons was awake the moment the door opened, turning his head to Rosie as she came in. Nodding slowly, he wondered why the guy from engineering didn't just use their ladder, they practically didn't move without them. This place had high ceilings after all. They might be new though... so he let her take a chair.

Smiling brightly and taking a chair and nodding. "Thank you! Ill bring it back as soon as possible." Rosie shuffled quickly out the shop and was about to call the man to let him know she had the chair but she realised she didnt know his name. Shrugging and walking down the ally slightly and just calling out. "I have tha chair now, where do you want me to put it?"

"Just here" the man said, pointing to the spot beneath the busted up camera; it was clear some vandals had gotten to it and beaten it apart. He was still holding that tool of his, looking up at the camera in concentration as his heart beat faster and faster.

Nodding and shuffling close Rosie put the chair down and looked up at the camera. "My my, thats broken pretty badly. Do you often see this? because it might have to be reported to the security office." chewing on her lip she stood next to the man and crossed her arms.

The mechanic nodded slightly and moved over to the chair, gripping on tightly with one hand as he balanced precariously on it; by the look of it he didn't like heights, because his nerves were making his legs shake like anything. "C-could... you hold it for me?" he asked, legs giving a vicious tremble as he tried to let go of the back, failing and gripping on tight again.

Nodding and quickly taking hold of the chair for him and holding one of her hands out,Rose giggled "Here, to steady yourself." thinking it usual for him to be afraid of hights, seen as she seemed to be an Aquatic creature.

The creature nodded and took Rosie's hand gratefully, steadying himself easily and gripping on firmly to the woman's hand... before suddenly jerking her sideways and raining a heavy blow on her back of the skull. The sudden shock and pain knocked her out in one shot, leaving her body completely preserved for what was necessary. Picking the prone woman up carefully, the man walked carefully over to a scanner in the wall; he flashed a badge to the machine and it whirred open, letting the man steal Rosie away from the public eye and further towards his acid vats.

D'mitri waited just long enough for the elevator to line up with the floor before he walked briskly through and into the sector proper. He immediatly began scanning the minds of everyone in the sector for malichious thoughts, thoughts of helplessness and fear, and of a longing for insects (for the lizard she carried around with her) to try and locate her.

Fear, anger, feelings of loss and rage all flooded his head, but none past that of a normal person; while most had anguish or a temper it didn't seem to extend past a normal person's. There were even a few longing for insects, but one was inside of Marons' bar.

That was as good a lead as D'mitri needed right now. He took off for Maron's bar and made it there in near record time. Without introducing himself he projected to Maron, "Have you seen Rosie or her lizard?"

"You mean this thing?" Marons pointed to the lizard on his shoulder "It wondered in a moment ago, about five minutes after Rosie left again. I was waiting for her to come back and look for him." It had been a while ago now actually... And now D'mitri was here asking about Rosie "Has something happened to Rosie?"

"Its a possibility." D'mitri said as he came up on the lizard. He looked into the lizard's mind and spoke to it whether it understood him or not. "This may not be pleasant." Then he went into its memories to find out what had happened to Rosie and why it was here.

The occasional thought about bugs and how big people were passed through Archies mind, majorily about his own person. His last memory was comming in with Rosie that last time her saying something realy loud that he couldnt understand and taking one of the branches these things often sat on (a chair.) how she went to help the funny looking thing that he thought of as a fish, a see though fish and how he was droped and plumeted to the ground when she was hit and how the fish took her way... and how he happened upon a rather taisty moth on his way back to the nice stone man that fed him.

"Go back. Where did the see through fish man take Rosie?" D'mitri said, trying to get the lizard to focus on that specific thought should gleam more information. If not then he would go back and get as much as he could.

Thinking closely on her person he remembered a corradoor and a broken eye on the wall. How she brought the chair so the fish man could be taller to reach the eye and how when he dropped to the floor, part of the wall opened like a door. Annnnnd then back to the moth which taisted funny.

"Good lizard." D'mitri said as he grabbed a small bug off the wall and set it motionless infront of it. He quickly left without saying another word and began following the mental path that the lizard had painted for him in his mind.

The alley was like many others along the ship's interior, small, a few containers at the side for some of the more hazardous materials that are used in every day life; of course with those containers there would be a hidden door for the cleaning crew to remove it. There were two other difference in this alley, first being that the camera was broken on the wall, smashed in and left to spark away, and the second is the chair, waiting below the camera as if someone had only just left.

D'mitri scanned the surrounding area for any clues as to what happened. He did a quick mental scan of the surrounding 50ft area for anything.

The current area was clear of anything but normal, crazy people; wherever the killer had taken her it was far from this point. He had the area though, this was the place, it would be good idea to start searching in this place.

D'mitri put in a quick call for any cameras that may have been pointing at this specific corner before returning to his search. He gave the broken camera, chair and pole a good once over.

The broken camera was the only camera to cover this particular alley, which is strange considering it wasn't fixed yet. It was a crude break, obviously hard but not brutal; it was done by someone who just wanted to break it, not savagely beat it to a pulp. The chair seemed oddly damp in place, as if something slimy, fish-like if you will, had touched them.

"Purposefully broken camera, chair to gain height maybe? And a damp slimy substance, possibly organic." D'mitri thought to himself as he analyzed the evidence. "If the chair was used for height then it is possible that the perpetrator is part of maintenance and uses this camera as a sort of bait."

The substance was watery, though it was slightly solid as if organic matter had made it harder. D'mitri's silence was interupted as a door slid back from the wall and someone stepped out from the panel; the engineer was obviously too busy flicking through his job sheet to notice D'mitri as he walked practically right up to him. He stopped, blinked his tiny eyes and wiped his hands on his overalls in confusion as he noticed D'mitri.

"'ere" the thick slab of a man said, his bright orange and brown body stretching the engineering uniform so thin that it was practically see through across the chest "'ave you been messin' with 'at camera?"

D'mitri looked up at the large individual. "No, this camera was broken when I arrived. Looks like it has been broken for some time." He then leaned over and took a look at the door that the man came out of. "Where does that lead?"

"It's the tunnels guv" the man said slowly, as if he suspected D'mitri was slow "Lets the engy's wonder round the ship without getting caught up in crowds and all 'at. Only the engy's and the like can get back there so there's no civies."

"Perfect place for murder." D'mitri said to himself. He nodded at the man and then walked past him to the panel and went to open it.

"You 'ave to show yer card to this eye" the slab of a man said, waving a hand in front of the small slider that revealed the admission eye. "Won't open without yer card" he looked over at D'mitri, squinting slightly and frowning "Why you tryin' to get in?"

"I am investigating a murder." D'mitri said plainly without looking at the man. He took out his ID and ran it infront of the eye.

"Right... well... errr..." the man scratched his head, seemingly lost for words right now. The machine in front of D'mitri beeped, then the door opened smoothly; things like this usually had a log, some record of comings and goings. If the lizard mind was right, the killer had used this door.

D'mitri walked through the door without saying another word to the large man. He reached out again with his mind to try and detect Rosie.

The woman was drugged to the point it was making her almost impossible to reach, her mind a mixture of sobs and regrets. There was no way to pin point her directly, just listen to the sobs echoing in her head.

"Not good, not good." D'mitri said as he widened his search. Since she was heavily drugged the kidnapper must be nearby. He widened his scan to any closer minds and thoughts to see if he couldnt locate her that way.

There was an odd jumble of minds, plenty in the surrounding area, but it would be difficult to track down the killer since D'mitri had no idea who they were and what they were like. He'd gotten a brief glimpse of the person from Archy's mind, not enough to find them through psychic sorting in this jumble.

D'mitri was thoroughly bothered by the difficulty he was having. He started looking down hallways and corridors trying to find anything that would lead him in the right way. He also scanned for malicious thoughts in his immediate area.

There were no malicious thoughts, at least ones coming from his side of the wall. He was right next to a main street, every thought pattern he found was almost immediatley interupted by another one from the busy walk way. There was even no telling if the murderer had stopped around here, how far could he have gone in a concealed passageway?

D'mitri stopped where he was in what appeared to be the main cooridor for the maintenance tunnels and looked around from where he was standing. He hadnt noticed any cameras so took this moment to scan for some as well as checking the floor for any track or trail that may lead him.

There were no cameras, after all the only way in was to either force your way in from outside, in camera view, or scan your way in, which was still in camera view and kept a log that D'mitri had so happily ignored. There wasn't even any traces of a trail, it wasn't as if there were going to be muddy foot prints or any dirt trail...

It suddenly dawned on D'mitri as if a voice was screaming it in his head. Every card reader kept a log of who swiped their card for security purposes. Quickly he sent out an order to one of his subordinates. "I need you to pull the swipe log for a maintenance cooridor access hatch in the Social Sector."

It was almost depressing, that he didn't seem to be able to surprise his subordinates, there wasn't even a surprised jerk from the person's mind. There was simply a "yes sir" and a wash of information as they began to access the maintence database. "I'm guessing you want the logs for the one recently accessed by you sir?" the person asked, D'mitri almost able to feel their fingers hovering over the selection buttons.

"That is correct." D'mitri said as he looked around making sure no one was trying to sneak up on him. This close to the possible lair of a murderer, one had to be on their toes.

"Well... umm... sir" the voice was hesitant, underlying with this must be wrong, this can't be right as they looked at their computer screen. "It says that the only few people through that door lately have been yourself, a technician moments before... and another engineer, Sally Jonness, back and forth quite a bit over the last few days. But that can't be correct."

Curiosity rose in D'mitri at the person's doubt. "And why can that not be correct? Is the person dead or currently unable to perform their job and therefore wouldnt be using their card?"

"Sir, she's been flagged up as missing for the last few days. We think she's one of the bodies down in the morgue. The ones you're investigating right now" the voice said in reply, a sense of bewilderment and eerie feelings coming through their mental state.

"Well thats somewhat of a dead end and a very bad sign." D'mitri said in a bothered voice. "So the murderer is using the keycard of one of his victims to get access to the maintenance corridors. Run a system scan of all the keycard swipes of that card on the ship and then see if there are any cameras in that area that may have spotted the perpetrator."

"Already doing that sir" the voice replied, and D'mitri could almost swear he heard elevator music as he waited for a responce. Finally the words "Just one swipe sir, it appears the perp got out another way from these doors... and there's a camera that watches your door, but it says it's busted. Huh... the damage report is roughly about when Sally Jonness disappeared."

"And there is no footage of the vandal before the camera broke? This individual knew what they were doing." D'mitri thought some more, trying to figure out ways that they could locate the suspect. "What was the other door it was swiped at?"

"Well sir we haven't checked if there's any footage of the perp from this camera yet, because you didn't tell anyone that you were investigating this general area." the voice sounded almost annoyed in D'mitri's head, as if they'd been asked to be psychic of clairvoyent themselves. "Looking through video now. The card was used regularly before Sally Jonness was called in missing, but so far it's only been used on one door, the door that you went through sir. Either they have their own escape route or they're still in the engineering tunnels sir."