The Calculus of Karma

by M.C. Tuggle

About the Author: M. C. Tuggle is a writer living and working in Charlotte, NC. His fantasy, science fiction, and literary short stories have been featured in several publications, including Space Squid, Kzine, and Metaphorosis. The Novel Fox released the paperback version of his novella Aztec Midnight in March, 2016, and Solstice Publishing published his novella The Genie Hunt in May, 2017.

Excerpt

At first glance, it looked like a miner had decided to lie back and admire Jupiter in the starry sky above. It would’ve been a good time to do so. The red-and-white planet was near Psyche’s perigee, and appeared about the size of the Moon viewed from Earth.

Lying face up in a narrow alley in the asteroid’s main camp, the miner wore a standard white biosuit and helmet, both of them new and in excellent condition—with just one problem, a spider’s web of cracks in the visor.  

My suit’s sensors detected no pulse in the body stretched out in front of me. Sonograms indicated the victim had been dead two hours, 20 minutes. I knelt for a closer look. The cracks in the visor weren’t big, but clearly big enough to let in the cold vacuum of space. After a couple of deep breaths, I got up the nerve to shine a light into the helmet. Sunken white eyes stared back from a face distorted by the vaporization of water from the body, and ice crystals sparkled in the gray stubble covering the cheeks.

Three months with the marshal’s office hadn’t prepared me for sights like this. It took a few moments before I stood and cleared my throat.

“Activate comm, med alert frequency five. This is Deputy Marshal Malcolm Lamb investigating incident 3-18-2454, Zulu 0357. Subject is deceased. Please dispatch med rover to Plat 277-A.”

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