Justice for Mrs Combs

Overview

Set in 3141, Justice for Mrs Combs is the story of a murder investigation by out-of-work escort pilot and amateur private eye Jack Voysey. Most of the events described take place in the Esveor system in Galaxy 1.

Time

Throughout the story, Voysey mentions clock times that appear roughly consistent with the day/night cycle in the part of Esveor that he visits. There are three possible explanations for this agreement: Esveor's day/night cycle happened to correspond closely with Galactic Mean Time while he was there, he switched from GMT to Esveor's local time after arriving in the system, or he altered the times in his narrative for the sake of convenience.

The issue of time is also raised by a hyperspace journey in the story. Although the duration of the journey is not specified, one can surmise that it takes nearly two days in real time, while feeling to the traveller like it lasts only minutes (due to the use of Stardreamer technology). This is consistent with Oolite gameplay and much Frontier fiction, though only consistent with The Dark Wheel and Dave Hughes's hyperspace page from a certain point of view.

Link

The story is available here.