The Umbudu was a repurposed intergalactic cruise ship. A gargantuan vessel of derelict swimming pools and shopping malls that had been appropriated to hold one of the off-lunar colonies of Nagu Five.

The colony ship sat, moored in space like a great leaden balloon, tethered to the moon below by trade links and turbulent political affiliation.

The ship was notorious throughout the quadrant as being a base for criminal activity, ranging from petty gangs, black market tech deals and shady council affairs.

Nearly every day, new dead bodies turned up on the artificial streets or face down in the abandoned saunas. Therefore, that Tuesday morning shouldn’t have really been anything out of the ordinary.

Another new body, blood splattered across a nearby shop front, a crowd of gawking onlookers. Only this particular body belonged to Tobias Park, the governor of the Umbudu, and his head had been ripped clean off.

Cedar Tanaka grimaced as he flashed his detective's badge at a uniformed officer and pushed past the holographic barrier tape.

“Well it ain’t pretty,” Saorise Lin, his partner, looked up at Cedar from where she was crouched down beside the headless corpse. “And you’re late, the captain’s gonna be after your head next.”

“My alarm –“ Cedar began weakly, the pain behind his eyeballs was pulsing erratically.

“Jesus, Tanaka, how much did you drink last night?” Saorise huffed angrily, tearing off her blue latex gloves and chucking them to the ground. “Don’t let the captain see you like this.”

Cedar caught sight of himself in the shop window. There were heavy dark circles under his brown eyes and his skin looked sunken and pale. “Still handsome,” he smirked with a shrug back at Saorise.

“For all the good it’s done you,” Saorise sighed. “Who is it at the moment huh? Emily? Tania? Rebecca?”

“What can I say?” Cedar grinned. “The ladies love a man with a gun.”

“Do they know it’s filled with blanks?” Saorise scoffed as Cedar pulled a face.

“Good morning Detectives!” a high pitched, cheery voice came from a short, caramel skinned man in a white forensics suit. He bustled up to them with a tray of coffees, forcing a particularly strong concoction into Cedar’s hands.

“Morning Rish,” Cedar shot him a grateful look before allowing the sweet caffeine to filter through his whiskey clogged veins.

“So Rish, what’s the diagnosis?” Saorise asked, folding her arms and nodding her head at the crime scene.

“Well I’d have to get him back to the lab before letting you know for sure, but,” Rish pushed his glasses further up his nose with an excited expression, “it looks like no weapon was used.”

“Jesus,” Cedar coughed, his throat hoarse and slightly burned from the coffee.

“Which means this was a non-bio attack,” Saorise sighed, running her hand through her dreadlocks. “How many registered AIs we got on board at the moment?”

“2014 last I checked,” Cedar shrugged, “but I reckon probably another 800 are here off books or been constructed illegally.”

“The strength needed to wrench off his head, gotta be an AI I’m afraid,” Rish confirmed. “Lots of the gangs have unregistered androids working for them, or it could have been a hack and whack?”

A ‘hack and whack’ was when someone accessed an android’s control systems to get them to perform assassinations or other criminal acts.

“There’s already enough anti android sentiment in the colony as it is,” Saorise noted drily. “Governor Park was pretty popular too.”

“Get the paps out of here,” Cedar growled to a nearby officer, gesturing at the hoarding swarms of journalists, their camera contact lenses flashing bright pink with every new salacious shot.

“What a shit show,” Saorise shook her head.

“Let’s get the body to the morgue, Rish,” Cedar nodded. “Any witnesses?”

“None,” Saorise pulled out her tablet and started to scan through something that looked like an electrical map. “But there are cameras.”

“They’ll have been jammed,” Cedar squinted up at a couple of security cams rigged to the promenade of shops above on the second level, “but get the footage looked at anyway. Maybe we’ll finally get lucky.”

A moment later the comms device on Cedar’s belt crackled into action before Captain Jones’ voice started barking at them.

“Lin, Tanaka! Get your worthless asses down to the station immediately and get a lid on your damn crime scene. I’m watching your hungover pretty boy face on my damn T.V screen right now, you look like a clueless idiot!”

“Fuck,” Cedar swore and glanced around to try and spot which of the paps was live broadcasting them, “just fantastic.”