Murder in TL10 Space Opera

[MattStriker]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

One cute one, that may or may not work with your in-setting super-science, is sabotaging an air-car to ascend uncontrollably beyond survivable altitudes.

The sci-fi equivalent of cutting the brake fluid lines =).

[quarkstomper]

It's not a murder mystery, alas, but Poul Anderson's short story "The Martian Crown Jewels" is a lovely locked-room puzzle in which a set of priceless jewels are stolen from an unmanned robot ship using principles of Newtonian physics. (That is to say, the thief used physics, not the ship. Although come to think of it, the ship did too, but I'm straying from the point).

[Langy]

Send the victim into the event horizon of a black hole. He's gone forever, but technically he never actually dies due to the severe time dilation... so is it really murder?

This wouldn't work. Even if the victim were able to survive all the way to the event horizon (they wouldn't - tidal forces would rip him to pieces beforehand), the time dilation effect is only on his end. To the rest of the universe, he just got sucked right in.

An alternative to this would be sending him through a time machine. It isn't really murder, since he'd still be able to live the rest of his life, but it would have all the effects of murder - until he pops out of the time machine some time in the future.

You know, that could be a really interesting mystery. The mysterious inventor just disappears under suspicious circumstances, there's a huge fight over his inheritance, and then after someone is executed for his murder he reappears from his time machine. He wasn't the victim of murder, but the guy who he framed for his death was.

Note: This time travel device wouldn't revolutionize the world, either, if it's a one-way-to-the-future device. It'd have very limited potential uses, I'd think.

[Victor Maxus]

Originally Posted by MattStriker

In a TL10 setting, the most original thing would probably be...low-tech.

There may be ways to scan for metal, weapons-grade ceramics or hard plastic, power sources of all kinds, explosives or nanites...

...but a simple blowpipe might go unnoticed, and with the right toxin it can take the target out rather quickly.

Hey, that was my idea. Nothing would be more interesting than killing some with an old fashion gun, like a glock or beretta, putting the investigators in for a loop. (Powder burn, ballistics match-up, in a TL 10 world, who does that anymore?) And once they figure out that is how it was done, the research begins with Who has access to such a weapon and the skill to use one. This example is very simple, and would would probably be very easy to solve, but just using it as an example to go along with MattStriker's. Some times, low tech can send high tech for a loop if they are not loking for it.

[Cernig]

David Weber had a mind-controlling nanite that could force victims to commit suicide, then broke down rapidly in the dead body so as to be hard to detect by forensics.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Cernig

David Weber had a mind-controlling nanite that could force victims to commit suicide, then broke down rapidly in the dead body so as to be hard to detect by forensics.

A little on the sophisticated side for TL 10

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

A little on the sophisticated side for TL 10

Or, more specifically, for the no-nano-verse.

[Apache]

Classic Traveller had a Adventure (Murder On Arcrturus Station?) that was, and still is, one of the best SF 'murder mystery' adventures ever published.

One of the very cool things about the adventure is that you could adapt it so that one of the PC's was the murderer....:)

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Langy

This wouldn't work. Even if the victim were able to survive all the way to the event horizon (they wouldn't - tidal forces would rip him to pieces beforehand), the time dilation effect is only on his end. To the rest of the universe, he just got sucked right in.

How do you know? Can you see past the event horizon? :)

[lexington]

Originally Posted by Langy

This wouldn't work. Even if the victim were able to survive all the way to the event horizon (they wouldn't - tidal forces would rip him to pieces beforehand), the time dilation effect is only on his end. To the rest of the universe, he just got sucked right in.

Time dilation is on both ends. The outside viewer percieves him stuck on the event horizon forever while the universe continutes normally, he would percieve the universe as having stopped (if he could see outside) while he continues on normally.