16 December 2022

Decryption Log: ... processing...

Personal Log of Persy:

We gain ship center - the reception area and the corridor up to the pinnace. After Heloise works her magic on the desk terminal and we discover the incriminating footage and the arrival of six additional people (presumably), we move spinward in search of the bridge.

Soon, we find ourselves back in crew quarters. The first cabins seemed unremarkable, but eventually we receive a response to our hails, albeit not a friendly one. After some convicing, the threatening presence resolved in the ship's Lead Scientist: Jan Vartha. If his cutlass is anything to go by, his skills reach beyond that of test tube and Matlab. Useful, though at the moment he seems somewhat withdrawn and not forthcoming.

The room next to our new friend's stinks fiercely. By his unspoken but piercing request, we leave it undisturbed. This does leave our personnel count somewhat less than accurate, but with two-thirds of the known ship-board staff already accounted for, the number of unaccounted for and unidentified corpses should be minimal.

We move on and find the medic's cabin, in which the light flicks off upon our approach. After entering the cabon, we test the lights and find that they are not motion-activated. This, then, supposes that whoever was in this room and fled upon our hail, was not Pent with her being photophobic, according to our previous encounter. Perhaps this is Jan's friend Holly?

We find more cabins, some neat, some in disarray. In the astrogator's cabin we come upon a personal electronic device, which we swiftly hack. Well, Heloise does. On it, we find 5 months worth of messages detailing communications with Butler Chemical. We ponder the evidence and see if Jan will give us additional information on what the subject of the ship's research really was. He remains tight-snouted.

I gently imply that - with very limited survivors to speak against him and with a known and deceased rogue element aboard - Jan might have an out if he wants to uh... shift certain responsibilities if his research turns out to have.. let's call them minor ethical compliance concerns. He immediately grasps the hint, but seems convinced he should own his role in things. He make a point of cultural pride. This speaks to his character, though I will offer to counsel him again if our various employers mean to scapegoat him. I do say - I might like him.

Eventually, we gain the bridge. We sweep the room and look under the drive couches and operator stations. A single shoe draws our attention. Having assued ourselves of the absence of immediate danger, we lock the counterspinward door behind us and face the two doors in front. One leads further spinward into the last unexplored quarter of the ship. The other, as per Jan's comment, leads to one of the ship's hardpoints. This door has traces of blood and hand prints.

Brick moves to strongarm the door. Heloise and I prepare to hail Murdok Starport. We decide not to report on our specific findings of the ship status and fate of the crew, but stick to the minimal mission parameters. Courtesy of the Murdok Starport manager, I give a token of life to Rhys Peters. We report our arrival at the bridge and note that the ship has functioning communications [QE-obviously-D], and to stand by for more detailed reports once we make it back station- or planetside.

By then, Brick has persuaded the door to the hardpoint to give way, and inside we find... a stowaway? One of the mercenaries? It is the body of a younger woman in a Willow Dawn jumpsuit, which gives Heloise quite a fright. She retires for a moment, while Franky examines her for possible cause of death. We determine it as most likely to be a gut wound. It was her shoe we found on the bridge, in any case.

Having reflected on our findings and deliberated on what to do next, we continue to move spinward towards the cargo bays. Immediately after the bridge we locate a second space raft garage which has signs of life. We convince Jan to do some of the talking, and soon he is reunited with his lab assistant Holly Ezrahm, who had taken refuge in one of the rafts.

The garage bay holds some simple space suits and some repair supplies. We outfit Franky, whose original suit is in tatters, and make sure our new additions suit up as well. Brick and I attempt a repair on his suit, which takes some time, and entirely too much tape. At least it lightens the mood somewhat for Heloise, Jan and Holly, who all look like they need a little diversion.

We move on after a brief look around in a storage closet and head towards the main cargo area. We switch on the lights and find ourselves face-to-face with Pent Stavro. There is a brief, terse exchange and then she charges at us. Jan tries to stop her, but gets swept aside. Jan gets knocked out. I fire my stunner but miss. After a brief struggle, Brick takes her down and we restrain her.

Now what do we do?

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