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A Murderous Desire was the eleventh story in the Bernice Summerfield anthology Something Changed. It was written by Ian Farrington.
Summary
The History machine works! However, Bernice Summerfield is sceptical about it. But when its creator Doggles is murdered after an argument with her, she has other things to worry about.
Plot
The history machine functions flawlessly, as the glaring white glow is revealed to be the Big Bang; nevertheless, Benny feels that something has gone very wrong. Braxiatel arranges for Doggles to be sequestered in private quarters to give him a break from the media attention, but Benny gets in to visit him, fearing what might happen should the history machine get out onto the open market. Unfortunately, this means that she’s the last person to see him before Braxiatel announces that Doggles has been found beaten to death. The history machine has also been destroyed, which means that they can’t use it to watch the murder -- and since Adrian’s new security protocols are in place, only a member of staff could have been able to commit the crime. Benny is the prime suspect, since the guards heard her arguing with Doggles before she left. Bev tells Benny that she was with Adrian at the time of the murder, but Adrian inadvertently contradicts her later, and Joseph then catches Bev stealing Benny’s diary from her rooms. When Braxiatel assembles the suspects together, Benny points out these discrepancies in Bev’s behaviour, but Braxiatel reveals that Bev lied about her whereabouts because she was in fact carrying out a secret errand for him. Benny’s diary entries don’t mention her argument with Doggles, she has only been able to defend herself by throwing suspicion on Bev -- and Braxiatel reveals that Doggles in fact survived his injuries, and has now come out of his coma and identified Benny as his assailant. Benny insists that Doggles’ history machine would have destroyed their understanding of history and the concept of personal privacy, but the others realise that she was in fact driven by a fear that archaeology would become a redundant discipline and that she’d lose her job. Braxiatel has no choice but to turn her over to the Interplanetary Police -- but Hass attacks Braxiatel to protect her, since Benny was his first and only friend on the Collection. Bev is forced to shoot and kill Hass to save Braxiatel’s life, leaving Benny to bear the guilt for his unnecessary death.
Characters
Worldbuilding
- In the screen of the history machine, a large ship is seen sinking into icy waters, presumably depicting the Titanic.
Notes
- Like most of the other stories in this anthology, this story takes place in an altered timeline created by Doggles' history machine; these timelines are (mostly) erased when Braxiatel returns things to normal.
Continuity
to be added