by Alan Mark
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| (Photo from Hubble Space Telescope) |
That... Face
by Alan Mark
I didn't know what to make of it. Of all my years with the Homicide Division of the Mars Planetary Police Force, I had seen my fair share of unusual crimes. But this one baffled me.
Exo-Archeologist Rupert Jones arrived from Earth a week ago. It's kind of funny, I thought, that Earth would send an archeologist to a place that's been pretty much lifeless, like Mars. What's not funny, is that Jones is dead and I don't have a clue, specifically how and why.
Jones, who I found out was called "Indiana" by his teammates, (supposedly based from an old popular film on archaeology), was on a fact finding mission. He was sent by the United Earth Federation to look into the suspected disappearances of some settlers, in a camp approximately one hundred and fifty kilometres from the Mars Alpha Settlement.
The Alpha settlement, set up around four decades ago, was the first and only populated settlement on Mars. Two more settlements, Bravo and Charlie, are being prepared for coming migrants in the near future. The camp that Jones was assigned to investigate was inhabited by early Mars settlers who refused to join the official UEF sanctioned Alpha settlement group, when the UEF started developing the planet's terrain.
I was assigned here several years after the settlement started, as a rookie Federation Officer (although I had a few years with the UEF, Australian Space Agency branch in Adelaide). In the many years that passed, I, the former Constable Simon Santo, rose up to the rank of Chief Superintendent, answerable only to the Mars Federation Police Commissioner (and technically, the Mars Governor).
“Indiana” Jones was the leader of the exo-arch team who went into the camp, on sector 17 Mars Planetary Terrain, a few days ago. Twenty four hours later, he was dead. My investigation turned from a suspected homicide, into a most interesting case, the moment I arrived at the crime scene.
I got the call from the station just as I was finishing my breakfast, and I went straight from my flat to Unit 3-F, Building 5, Main Street, Alpha Settlement, where Jones was booked for his stay here in the red planet. It was just a few blocks where I lived. On the way there, I felt like it was going to be just one of those ordinary days. I was even humming my favourite song. I believe it was called "That Face" or something, from a very old musical. Forgive me, I have a thing for old musicals. Hmmmmm..hmmm. I felt so good this morning that I actually tried to sing the ditty while climbing up the steps.
"That... face, that face, that glorious face... that makes my spirit rise. That gaze, those kissers, this visage I see...could lead to paradise..." Hmmmm...hmmmmm.
It was a good thing I had a small morning meal, 'cause I would have risked embarrassing myself once I saw the body. Jones was slumped, seated at his desk chair, obviously dead. What made the sight horrific, was Jones's eyes were burned and empty, as if someone held a blowtorch directly into the sockets.
What made it even more strange than the many gruesome murders I had seen in my long and eventful life, was that Jones was smiling. Not just any smile, but his face showed a sense of happiness that was so, for the lack of a better word, pure, that one cannot help but think that he actually died ...happy.
Yes, I actually thought dreamily ... happy ...happier even, than anyone, even myself, would probably ever get to feel. Or so I was thinking. I shook the feeling off, removing that ridiculous thought from my mind, and started to go to work.
I did all the usual stuff, looked for signs of an attack or a struggle, checked for prints, interviewed the neighbours, and turned everything in the flat upside down.
I ordered the forensic staff to take the body to the lab and examine it thoroughly. They came up with zilch. There was one interesting component in this crime scene however, that I felt was crucial to the case. Jones had set up darkroom in the windowless toilet inside the flat. This was not unusual for the exo-archeology types like Jones.
Darkrooms were a very old set up of processing non digital photographs. Many decades since digital photography was invented, there were still a small group of people who insisted on taking pictures the old way,through photographic film. It was a cumbersome and expensive way to take a photograph. Aside from the equipment, which cost dozens of times more than the usual cameras, one had to know someone who knew how to process it. It had its advantages though. Photographs from film cameras did not require batteries and there were a lot of places in the universe, not to mention Earth itself, where you couldn't recharge your cameras once the juice ran out.
We were taught about this stuff in the academy. You had to load this thing called a film roll into a camera, and after the picture was taken, remove the film from the canister, in a room without any light since the film was sensitive to it, and could be ruined if exposed, hence the term darkroom. In almost total darkness, one had to dip the film into some chemicals until the images appear on the film. After that, you insert the film into some sort of projector where it will cast the image to a piece of specially made paper. You then had to dip the the paper into chemicals, again. Only then would you have a print.
There was a small table, next to the sink, that was filled with trays that had some pungent smelling liquid in it. Above it appeared what looked like a clothesline, with some clips. On the table, a spool of film, and near it, was an empty, popped open canister. At the far end of the table was a projector like device, sort of like a hanging flashlight.
There was a bunch of photographs next to a printer on the table, and some were scattered on the floor. I also found a voice recorder on the desk. I ordered Ruiz, a rookie on the scene, to bag all the stuff and have it analysed. And then I went home.
That was a week ago. So far, I had nothing to explain how Jones was killed, and who may have done it. There were no signs of entry inside his flat, which was locked from the inside. It was only when his teammate picked him up that morning and he was not answering the door, that the police were called and his body discovered.
There were no reports from the neighbours of any sound or unusual thing that would have indicated an intruder or attacker. All Jones's team could tell him was that the day before, they had just returned from the Mars Alpha Settlement camp site that they were investigating, and found nothing but what seemed to be remains - bones and ashes, of the early settlers who lived there.
Stories were told about this group, who, after setting up their own camp, established something like a cult. This was not a strange thing to happen, as history has shown that many groups of people tend to gather based on certain beliefs. Some, like this group, were branded as cults, but some just wanted to live by their own set of rules. These settlers, who volunteered for the first few trips to Mars, were said to have done so, in search of their "god".
This group claimed that they felt Earth was so drowned in so called sin, that "god" would have deemed its inhabitants hopeless, and this prompted them to leave.
This group of settlers, who called themselves the Seekers, felt that Mars, or any other unspoiled planet away from Earth, would be their best hope in their search to see their "god".
The authorities branded them as harmless fanatics, and thought that they even made perfect volunteers for the Mars expedition.
During those days, there were not a lot of people who would want to make the trip and relocate to Mars. And, establishing a large enough population was a key objective for the UEF. It was only when there was no contact for the last few years with the so called Seekers, that the Mars Authority decided to request, for a team from Earth, to investigate what could have happened to them.
The authority of the Mars police was limited inside the settlement, and the Governor felt it prudent to send an Earth based exo-archeology team, who was properly trained for this purpose. With the Earth authorities breathing on his neck on the preparation of the Beta and Charlie settlements, he did not want any untoward incident to spook future migrants in making the trip to Mars.
Together with the voice recorder found in Jones's flat, where he spoke of what he found in the camp, the statements of Jones's team members gave an eerily puzzling picture of what happened to that group. What Jones and his team found in the camp was unsettling. They saw signs of dwellings, makeshift tents, beds and tables, storage boxes, and other living necessities. But,the camp was empty, according to the voice recording, and statements made by Jones' teammates. This somehow confirmed the report my own men have given me,upon visiting the camp.
What Jones also found, as I continued to listen to the recording, were pieces of what seemed like human bones, as well as ashes, probably from decayed and decomposed bodies. Jones and his team found no records or any information that may explain what could have led to the disappearances, or, assumed deaths of the settlers. For sure, it was not because the area was uninhabitable.
During the early days of exploration, the UEF was able to implement Genesis Bombs all over the main areas of the planet, that stimulated and developed the conditions that made the area liveable for humans. Even the team of Doctor Rupert Jones, Senior Supervisor of the UEF Exo-Archaeology Division, entered the encampment without any life support systems. The air was a bit heavy, but not toxic. There was ample water supply in the streams, and the area had lush vegetation and trees.
In fact, the team reported, the area was actually very well developed in terms of flora, with vegetables and fruits all around. One of them even jokingly said, although crudely, that it looked like the f*$%#ng biblical garden of Eden.
One of the more interesting finds that Jones and his team recovered was a non-electronic Nikon film camera. It was one of those very old camera models. According to Jones's voice notes (later reviewed by the lab and a transcript sent to me), the camera contained an undeveloped film roll. It had the markings of the film manufacturer - Kodak, with a label saying ASA 400 – 25 Exposures and ID# 387-760. I noted that the ID number and other markings matched the canister found in the darkroom at Jones's apartment.
Jones, according to his teammates, was very eager to get the film roll back to his flat, and spent the next few days setting up the darkroom from equipment they brought with them from Earth. Jones' assistant reported that he planned to process the film himself. And he seemed to have done it the night before his body was discovered. He messaged his team just around ten p.m. (Mars time), that he had already finished developing the film, and was soon going to make prints. That was the last they heard of him.
I had just gotten the report from forensics,saying that they could not be certain how the burn marks in Jones's eyes were inflicted. There were no other signs or indicators that may explain the cause of death. It just seemed that his heart stopped beating, around the same time his eyes got incinerated.
I tried to get some information from the lab about the roll of film. It seemed that they didn't have the equipment to examine it or make prints. All they could gather was, with the exception of one, all exposures of the film was just blank. After doing some research on non-digital photography, I noted that it meant that all the other frames weren't used to take an image and that only one frame, out of the twenty five exposure film roll contained an image.
A quick look by holding the roll of film against some light showed that it looked like a bright abstract shape, but I couldn't tell what it could have been. The forensic staff could not be sure what it was either, until they find the equipment, materials and chemicals that could come up with a print.
Unfortunately, such resources were not available in Mars, and the archeological team had already left for Earth yesterday, together with the body of Jones (to be returned to his grieving wife and daughter), and bringing along all their equipment with them. I wasn't sure if I wanted to proceed with what my gut was telling me.
All I had was a mysterious killing, in strange circumstances, with a roll of film taken from a group of god seekers. I decided to have the roll of film sent to Earth and have the UEF office in Adelaide have prints made of that one image. I bagged it, labelled it accordingly, and dropped it off at the front desk where it would be picked up later and sent on the next ship back to Earth. I told them to send me a copy at once.
The next few hours, I decided to sit back and accept that there was nothing else I could do unless new evidence pops up. I was about to call it a day, when I noticed an evidence bag on my desk. This was one of the first ones collected by Ruiz, the rookie, and I realised that it has been sitting there all week, instead of being in the lab where it should have gone through analysis. These newbies, I thought, you have to spell out everything for them.
I grabbed the bag and in it was a bunch of papers, and a stack of printed images. I was about to read the notes, when some of the printed photos caught my attention. I could see that the other prints were images of the camp site, probably from Jones's printer. This other one however, was not flat. It was curled up. I brushed away the photos taken by Jones, and saw the curled one facing upside down. Slowly, I took the photograph, and flipped it over.
I, Mars Police Chief Superintendent Simon Santo, suddenly smiled. So this is what happened. The Seekers did find what they wanted. And who would have thought, one of them even had the audacity to take a photo using an antiquated film camera.
They were able to see the face. And Jones had seen it too. There and then, my mind, and heart filled with so much happiness at the face I was seeing on the photograph.
And as my eyes slowly burned and melted, and my heart started beating so fast it felt like bursting, I could not help but recall my favourite song, with a smile filled with so much joy.
"That... face, that face, that glorious face... that makes my spirit rise. That gaze, those kissers, this visage I see.... could lead to paradise..." Hmmmm...hmmmmm.
