Hoxbomb

"Hoxbomb"
Author	Harry Turtledove
First Appearance	Alien Crimes
Publisher	Science Fiction Book Club
Collected	We Install and Other Stories
Genre(s)	Science Fiction
Publication date	2007

"Hoxbomb" is a science fiction story by Harry Turtledove. It was published in Alien Crimes, edited by Mike Resnick, SFBC 2007. It has been reprinted in We Install and Other Stories, OpenRoadMedia, 2015.

The story is set at an unspecified point in the future in a community called Latimer on a planet called Lacanth C. The planet was discovered simultaneously by humans and an alien race called the Snarre't over 150 years prior to the story's setting, and, rather than going to war, both agreed to rule the planet as a codominium, and colonists from both civilizations soon established themselves there. In addition to their substantial physiological differences, the Snarre't also rely on biotechnology, rather than the mechanical technology Earth uses.

The story focuses on human police sergeant John Paul Kling and a Snarre' investigator called "Miss Murple", who are required to work together to investigate the birth of a human child born with substantial deformities. The deformities are so severe that human authorities fear that the child was the victim of a Snarre'i hoxbomb, a biotech weapon. Such an action could prove a diplomatic nightmare for both peoples.