I had no energy yesterday to write, but you have to push through that. So I did.
“Process,” I asked carefully, “is there anybody else on-planet who has been posted on Terkutuk?”
“Nobody whose records I can reliably access,” replied The Process. “Which does not include the crew of the Redacted. But Specialist Sild came to this planet three years ago, and has not gone offworld. He could not have been directly involved with whatever happened on Terkutuk.”
“How about indirectly?” I flipped printouts. “Maybe he knew somebody… strike that, obviously he knew plenty of people from the station. Maybe he knew something about one of them that might be relevant, now that the planetary station’s gone.”
“You will not be permitted to revive him and ask,” The Process warned. “It would be far too dangerous to everyone, including him. He must be taken somewhere where he can be fixed.”
“I didn’t say I wanted to revive him!” Yet, I admitted to myself. Or that I had been working out ways for us to safely interrogate a homicidal maniac, without thinking about how to make it safe for the homicidal maniac, too. But The Process has different priorities than we do. Better ones, at times.