The Starbourn Sojourn IC [Eclipse Phase]

[LeviM]

Sitting in the chair in the broadcast center, you can’t help but feel the nervous energy; whether going on a much needed vacation, or routine trip to another conference. You can’t help but feel like this trip will be different. The Starbourn Sojourn is one of the most luxurious starliners in the system. Rep or credits alone won’t get you on board. You really have to do something special to get an invite. As soon as those nanites are done scanning your brain, you’ll be zipped off to...

In a blink, you are standing on a tropical beach, waves slowly lapping against the sand. An orange disc hangs halfway over the horizon, bathing everything in its warm glow. Above the wispy clouds, the sky fades away to digital code constantly flowing and swirling. Someone’s running a heavy job if they can’t even fully render a sky.

Standing before you is an average looking man with dark hair. He’s wearing a pair of khaki slacks and a white button down shirt. His pants and shirt sleeves are rolled up and wet.

“Welcome to the Starbourn Sojourn. You may call me Dahl. I regret to inform you that your normally scheduled trip will not go as planned. Certain...events have transpired since you first egocast here. The ship was attacked by an unknown force. Most of the passengers aboard have been killed, or infected. I am the sole survivor of a covert team sent to investigate. My morph was severely damaged and expired. Luckily, I was able to install this beta-fork in this simulspace. I have been running reintegration algorithms to rebuild your egos from the reception buffer. You need to get a message to my contact on Extropia Station. If you can escape, please take my stack with you. I know you may not be the most suited for this task, but you are our only hope. Millions of transhuman lives depend on your actions. ”

[cpttanktop]

With a slightly bemused smile, "Dahl, my friend, I'm sure you've heard of me; Dr. Myles Harris. You of course my call me Dr. Myles as my celebrity clients do. Yes, yes, this is all an amusing lark-the cruise never fails to entertain! But really, I didn't come here for the parlor games. Why are there no other passengers present?" With a slightly conspiratorially look, "I have business to attend to."

Laughs to self, "...covert team; delightful! But seriously, where are the others?"

[jolinaxas]

"Is this seriously what it takes to entertain you people? I've heard about Pavarti, but this is something else..."

{Gadriel, could you look over the travel contract again? Look for some kind of opt-out clause. I came here to network, not play make-believe with 200-year-olds.}

[LeviM]

Gadriel comes back instantly, {Amelia Rosenthal booked this trip for you. It is curious, but I do not seem to have mesh access. This simulation is localized and deeply restrictive.}

Dahl smiles. "I know this seems inconceivable. Sadly, the two of you are probably the last individuals on this ship who have full awareness of their situation. I have a few morphs at my disposal. I will sleeve you into one of them so you can begin. You must get my message to Extropia. I fear that certain members of the Inner System may be infected and are now back in place, ready to strike."

[LeviM]

Stress Test(Willpower x3) rolls:

Dr. Myles: [roll0] vs 45
Sofia: [roll1] vs 45

[cpttanktop]

The shock of the predicament begins to sink in a bit. {Alaster, send a quick introduction to our only other hope in this mess and see if you can get their name. They of course can call me Dr. Myles.}
"Well Dahl, I suppose a body would be in order-you're simulation isn't exactly holding my attention. I can't help but feel that you have a lot of information that you're just barely hinting at. Would you care to elaborate? Who on Extropia do we need to contact for starters."

[jolinaxas]

{Mistress, Handshake Request from a Dr. Myles Harris. Accept?}
{Him? Sure, why not. When we're force-uploaded he can let me know how crappy I look as a simulmorph. It'll be interesting being on the other end of the XP for once.}

Sofia temporarily looks toward the other figure in the simulspace.

"-The- Myles Harris? You'll excuse me if I skip the normal pleasantries, yes?"

"So, you were saying something about morphs at your 'disposal.' By all means, what's available? If I'm going to die, I don't want to do it in some off-the-rack Sylph..."

[cpttanktop]

{Ms. Cortes, I think it best that we establish a secure connection with each other, what assurance do we have that this Dahl is not compromised? Alaster, please transmit my private key to Ms. Cortes to establish secure communications.}
"Ms. Cortes, it is a pleasure. Dahl, our choices?"

[LeviM]

Dahl speaks again "To prevent the infection from spreading, my alpha self pruned portions of my consciousness. Valuable information was also lost. I know the name of Rusk on Extropia. I have a pre-recorded message to get to this person. It has been scanned and guaranteed infection free. It is on a chip plugged into this server. You may download it or carry it."

"As for morphs, we have a well stocked resleeving facility at our disposal. Here is the load out."

A list appears floating in space:
Splicers x4
Exalts x2
Menton x1
Olympian x1
Sylphs x2
Bouncers x2
Hibernoids x3
Pleasure Pod x3

"The morphs are all in perfect condition, with very little in the way of mods. Make a selection and I will sleeve you promptly. I do not have access beyond this facility, so you will have to return here if you further questions of me."

[cpttanktop]

"Ladies first Ms. Cortes-my I call you Sofia, it's a lovely name. I must say that while I'm typically drawn to the Exalt models, which will be my second choice, this situation has me quite rattled. I am intrigued by the Olympian morph; a little extra muscle appeals to my base senses at the moment, I don't mind saying."

You can literally hear Dr. Myles psych himself up. "Also, I would be willing to download a copy of the message, though it might not be a bad idea to also take a physical copy."

[jolinaxas]

"Sofia's fine, Dr. Myles, and thank you."

She'd let him have the burly Olympian. She never got used to the almost comical amount of muscle mass they employed anyway.

"I'll take a 'bouncer', preferably female for proprioception's sake. I guess I'll see what it's optimized for when I sleeve in."

[LeviM]

Dahl nods approvingly, "Will there by anything else before I sleeve you?"

[cpttanktop]

"Since 'get us the hell out of here' seems unlikely, I'm ready to get on with it."

{Alaster, do we have the recorded message downloaded? I'm ready when we have the data."

[LeviM]

Dahl smiles at the request, "Believe me, I would if I could. Return here if you have questions. Good luck."

With that, the simulation dissolves to blackness. Slowly, your eyes start to open. The world is blurry and unrecognizable.

The resleeving pod opens up and Sofia drops to the floor. The gravity takes a moment to get used to, but the Bouncer fits very well. A few minutes pass before one of the other pods opens and a very fit Olympian morph drops to the floor. Dr. Myles stands up and begins to move around, as if this morph was made just for him.

The dimly lit Resleeving facility is roomy and colored light gray. 4 pods are on the wall, now empty. Through one the doors is Morph storage. The other must lead to the rest of the ship. There is a disturbing lack of mesh access.

[jolinaxas]

Sofia picks herself up from the floor, trying to remain composed.

"It's the independently articulated toes. Can't ever get used to that..." she mutters under her breath.

{Gad, I assume the mesh situation hasn't changed since I've been resleeved?}

{All attempts at re-routing have failed, mistress. The only signals around are strictly RFID. One-way, that is.}

{That's can't be good. Well, let's go through the usual routine, then. What am I today?}

{The model is tagged as your usual genefixed human, modified for quality of life in micrograv habitats, or "bouncer," to use the slang. Aside from improved fast-twitch musculature for improved reflexes, it's exowomb-standard, though you haven't yet been in one from this company. Shall I begin overseeing an XP feed?}

{Hilarious. Speaking of nearby tags, are there any clothes around, or a fabber of some kind?}

"You seem to be doing well, Doctor. Better than me, in fact. Still, I'm mostly acclimated at this point. I suggest we find supplies or a nanofabricator of some kind, and then figure out what that fork isn't telling us."

[cpttanktop]

Dr. Myles admires his morph for a moment with a wry smile on his face, noticing only himself as he exits the pod.

{Dr Myles sir, you continually stumble into good luck. This Olympian model has the more rare cognitive enhancements. It is a perfect fit in fact. Can we keep it? Oh, by the way, I cannot access the mesh at all; it's quite disconcerting. Hope we did not have any appointments...}

{Appointments Alaster? Can you imagine my picture splashed across the mesh in THIS body-and as a hero no less?! Forgot our appointments, I'll be able to finance the project myself without the 'corp. By the way, make a note of this morph model; I'm definitely getting one of these.}

"I may have found a new favorite!"

"I'm sorry Sofia, what did you say? Oh, supplies, certainly. One of my first VR games put the player in an Olympian-type morph with two vibroblades, maybe we could fab a couple of swords?"

{That sounds like the worst idea you have ever had. Sir.}

[LeviM]

A quick search of the room reveals drawers full of pre-manufactured smart-vac clothing.

In the center of the room next to an ego bridge is a small server. It clashes with the ultra-sleek design of the room. A small memory chip hangs from the side of it. Wires run out and plug into various jacks around the room. It seems as if this server is also powering the resleeving facility. One side of the server is a terminal.

On the screen you can see Dahl's face. Over an embedded speaker, you hear his voice. "Glad to see you have adjusted to your new morphs. My expired morph is outside that door. Do be careful not to come in contact with the blood. I think I had a pistol and a few clips. It's dangerous out there. You'll need it."

[cpttanktop]

The smile immediately falls from Dr Myles' face and his hand reflexively goes up to feel his cortical stack. With a quick look over at Sofia, he nods over to the server.

"Well, there's the chip with our data. And this is presumably a clean server; otherwise we're both already infected. I wonder what other data we can find on this thing. A map or schematic would be nice."

Dr Myles makes his way over to the terminal and begins searching through the file structures some-any-useful data.

"Sofia, we should grab a vac suit I suppose. Not exactly a relaxing vacation we find ourselves on."

[jolinaxas]

"Swords? I mean, whatever floats your boat, I guess. I'm not exactly a pistolero, but if we can grab his gun, that will help. Better than my bare hands, anyway."

{Mistress, shall I configure this vacsuit to your usual attire?}
{I don't see why not. Black this time.}

The smart materials begin to re-assemble the vacsuit into a black, somewhat loose-fitting jumpsuit.

{A shame you spent all that rep on that business suit blueprint, mistress}
{Don't start with me, Gad. Not today.}

[LeviM]

Dr. Myles quickly finds a schematic of the ship, based on some of the vacation brochures.

The ship is two Stanford Torus rings revolving around a thin corridor in the center. The rotation gives you 0.45g of gravity. A good push and you'll go pretty far.

You appear to be on the fore ring, in the farcasting facility.

[cpttanktop]

"Looks like we are on deck A in the Egocasting Facility B. Oh, a pool. Anyway, I'm transmitting a copy of the layout now."

{Transmit started, waiting for data acceptance... Here you are Sofia. Alaster tells me I didn't download the actual brochure before we left, so I don't have the specifics for the rooms. I expected HIM to do it, but no matter.}

"Where would you like to start? Living Suites? Restaurant perhaps? I'm not particularly hungry but knowing we have access to food would be reassuring. I suppose just getting out of this room is going to be an adventure."

"Dahl, I think it might be a good idea to encrypt this server, but I don't want to fight you on it. Would it be acceptable to encrypt your data and lock down access to this server? I would share the data only with Ms. Cortes."

[jolinaxas]

Sofia begins looking over the map, unsure of any particular room's significance to the task at hand, except one.

"I think we should head to the security office on this ring and figure out why we're doing -their- job. It.."

She visibly sighs.

"It may also have swords?"

[LeviM]

Dahl speaks, "I have encrypted the server and sent you the keys. I will continue trying to assemble egos from the buffer to assist you. I will also search for any information that might be useful to you."

Vacsuits and directions acquired, you have one door available. Any preparations before you set off?

[cpttanktop]

"Ha! Right you are! Security room it is then."

{Alaster, how do we calibrate this morph for sword use?}

{Hold please sir, calibrating now}

{Ms. Cortes, if he picks up a sword, might I ghostride with you?}

{pre-calibration complete sir, good luck to us all}

[LeviM]

You move to the door and nearly collide with it as it doesn't open. The power is out in most of the ship. You'll need to come up with a way to open it.

[cpttanktop]

Dr. Myles takes a step back and begins a wireless scan to override the door manually.

"Oh, right, no power. Maybe we can climb out of here?"

He scans the ceiling above for an access panel of any kind while also looking for any available tool to pry and/or lever the door open.

[LeviM]

[Perception Success]
It appears the door is physically locked. If you could restore power to the door, you could override the locking mechanism and the door would open.(Hardware: Any; Interfacing)
Another option would be to physically unlock the door and force it open. (Hardware: Any; SOM x 3 -10)
Lastly, you could bash the door down with some kind of club. (SOM x 3 - 30)

You do not see any way to climb out of the resleeving facility. As you ponder your options, the automation behind you kicks into gear. An arm slides along the ceiling and retrieves a Menton. It brings it back to one of the resleeving pods. Status lights along the top show the progress of the resleeving.

[jolinaxas]

Sofia turns around, startled by the resleeving station suddenly coming to life.

"Dahl, what's going on? Have you managed to recover another ego?"

While she waits for his response, she instinctively starts grabbing around for a blunt object.

[LeviM]

Dahl responds "I have re-sequenced another ego to assist you. Please acclimate him to your current situation."

A short while longer, the pod opens up and a Menton morph drops to the ground. Bewildered by his environment, he begins to take stock of his situation.

[cpttanktop]

As the resleeving mechanism started Dr Myles lept towards the door to attempt to physically open it, but stopped as he heard Sofia speak and Dahl answer.

He turns again to look at the Menton coming out of the pod and looks at Sofia.

"Yes, more help is good-this is a good thing. Right, this is a good thing?"

[Pyrite]

The Menton takes a moment to find his balance, his eyes snapping from face to face and detail to detail, taking the room in. He looks at his hands, recoils at first, then takes a bit of a closer look, cocking his head to the side. All of his motions are slightly exaggerated.

"Is this a good thing?" he mutters, before looking up again. "Oh, uh... hello." He looks from person to person. "This is the cruise ship, right?"

He glances behind him. "Is something wrong with the welcome interface?... This isn't really what I expected."

[cpttanktop]

A burly Olympian points to himself and another and says, "I guess we're the welcome interface at this point. Dr Myles Harris." He gives a quick wave of hello.

"I'll transmit you a copy of the ship's layout-we're going to need it. Apparently something has happened which has killed everyone on board. Dahl here," he says, pointing to the server, "is our only link to a preceding security detail that has-apparently again-also been wiped out. We're only just getting this information as well. Other than knowing about Dahl's expired morph right outside this door, we are pretty much in the *dark* too." This last his says with a bit of a smirk. Seeing no one laugh at the pun, he adds, "well, yes, the power seems to be out, so in the dark...Ah, anyway, welcome!"

"And you are?"

[Pyrite]

He returns the little wave weakly, while he looks over several details of the room again and takes a deep breath. "Peter," he answers. "...and, you're serious?"

Peter shakes his head. "I mean, this seems like a lot of effort to go through, especially without just using a simulspace." He raises an incredulous eyebrow. "Is this some prank you guys pull on novelists?"

[Clyde, are you there] he thinks to his muse.

A slightly cartoonish image of a gangland thug appears in his optics, leaning against a nearby wall. He's smoking a cigar, and blows a mouthful of smoke into the air. [Yeah boss. Whatcha' need? I can't find a mesh signal anywhere, and I've just finished the third diagnostic on this body's inserts, so we're in the dark for reals.]

[jolinaxas]

"No trick. At least, not one I've thought of. On the bright side, if we survive, you'll have the material for another novel. Sofia Cortes, by the way."

Hanging from a pipe by her feet, she points to a nearby drawer.

"Spare clothes are in there. Probably not the digs you're used to, but they're vacuum-capable and made of smart materials. Nice choice of morph by the way. I'd have preferred a synthetic, given the circumstances, but we are on a cruise, after all."

{Gad, send a handshake to Pete's muse, and let Myles know to let him on the VPN.}

She lets herself down off the pipe.

"So, did you see any way out of here?"

[cpttanktop]

"VPN you say? Oh, right, certainly."

{Sending private key now sir}


"It looks like the door is locked. We could try to force it open. Or is anyone practiced in hardware? We could try to turn the power back on and get the door open that way.

{Sir, YOU are fairly skilled with electronics, perhaps YOU should give it a try.}

Dr Myles walks over to the door scanning for an access panel to get the power back on.

[Pyrite]

Peter looks down suddenly. "Oh, right, clothes. Aheh... maybe you can tell, but I'm a bit more used to synths myself." He walks in the direction Sophia pointed, working a bit to find his balance. "I was a little disappointed that they didn't have one of those new 'Steel' morphs in stock." His voice sounds just a little doubting of his own opinion. He pulls out some of the smart clothes and quickly dresses himself.

[Hey Boss,] Clyde chimed in, standing on the dresser in miniature and leaning against the wall. He raised a hand to tip his hat back off of his eyes. [These guys seem more or less on the level. The jokin' and non-chal-ance is mostly coverin' for stress. If this is for reals, like they say, we's probably gonna need to trust them, at least a little. I can keeps us isolated if you really want, but I'm not reccomendin' it.]

Peter pauses for a moment, glancing back at each of his unexpected companions. [Make friends, but keep an eye on them. Keep your enemies closer.]

He takes a moment to scan over the ship schematic. "Um... did anyone else notice that there's no 'Egocasting Facility A'? It just kinda... jumped out at me." He smooths his clothes down and takes a look at himself, contemplating for a moment. "And just accepting all of this at face value for the moment, do we have any idea what... killed everyone? We probably shouldn't go wandering around an empty station that might still be dangerous without some idea of what to look out for."

[LeviM]

Dr. Myles quickly gets to work tinkering with the door. He finds an access panel and locates the power relays. They are completely dead. An external power source will be necessary.

[cpttanktop]

{Peter is now connected sir}

{Thank you Alaster}

(via secure VPN connection) {We'll need a power source to get these doors open. Of course this server here has a power source, but taking Dahl, and this egocasting station, offline seems like a rather short-sighted plan. I guess we could try to physically pry this door open. Bashing it down seems close to impossible.}

(out load) "I had not noticed the lack of a facility A, that's an interesting observation. Dahl did warn us not to touch the blood out in the hallway. Could it be some sort of biological virus?"

Dr Myles' eyes unfocus for a moment as he taps into his eidetic memory. "Dahl also said this: 'The ship was attacked by an unknown force. Most of the passengers aboard have been killed, or infected. I (meaning Dahl) am the sole survivor of a covert team sent to investigate. My morph was severely damaged and expired. Luckily, I was able to install this beta-fork in this simulspace. I have been running reintegration algorithms to rebuild your egos from the reception buffer. You need to get a message to my contact on Extropia Station. If you can escape, please take my stack with you. I know you may not be the most suited for this task, but you are our only hope. Millions of transhuman lives depend on your actions.'"

"We have a digital copy of the message Dahl needs us to send to Extropia, and the name of a contact there, Rusk, to deliver it to. And that's where we stand."

[LeviM]

Alaster interjects, {It would be possible to hook this door up without compromising the resleeving facility. The facility is unable to send or receive ego casts.}

[cpttanktop]

With an exaggerated look of concentration on his face, Dr Myles begins looking around the room for other power sources to divert to the door.

"Hmm...perhaps we can re-route the power from one of the vacated pods from our morphs-the pods still seem to be functioning somehow."

[LeviM]

Peter starts to work the locking mechanism, but before he realizes, Dr. Myles has rewired power from the pod to the door. Looks like brute force will be unnecessary.

[cpttanktop]

"Oh, Peter, sorry. I get lost in my own work sometimes and miss what's going on around me. The door has power again." Dr Myles very clearly does not make the first move to open the door.

{Alaster, please add the door as a secured node to our VPN and share a private key with Peter, Sofia, and their muses}

[Pyrite]

Peter transforms his new smart clothing into a short trench coat and replies over the VPN. [You don't need a power source just to get it open. All these doors have a manual seal release in case of this specific circumstance. You just have to know where to look for them.]

He walks over to the door, bends a knee down next to it, and quickly locates the release, a well hidden lever concealed in the frame of the door. He gets ready to pull it, but then Myles starts talking, grabbing his attention. His eyes go wide at the mention of infected blood, and go wider as the doctor speaks the conversation from memory. He freezes there in shock.

He seems shaken and a little uncertain as to whether to proceed. When Myles announces that the door has power, he lets go of the release mechanism and steps back.


"Did you... he... say 'rebuilt us from the buffer?' as in we were pulled together out of junk files in the farcasting buffer, that had been sitting there since who knows when we actually first got here?" He shivvers, looks at himself, and forces himself to stop. "If that's true, we're probably all still out in the ship somewhere, living or dead."

[LeviM]

The door is powered up and the key is added to the vpn. Anything else before setting off?

[cpttanktop]

"Well, then let's set out and find our old dead selves. Maybe we know something we don't know. Sofia suggested the Security Facility on this ring, which seems a good place to start. I'd like to get a chance to exam Dahl's expired morph, which we will probably find right outside this door."

[Pyrite]

Peter closes his eyes, takes a breath, and nods. "Alright, alright we're doing this. Just... just give me a minute to see if I can find anything useful in here first." He quickly walks over to the pod his morph had been stored in and starts looking at it, pulling what he can apart and tossing the pieces that aren't deemed useful into the side of the room. "Come on... they've got to be paranoid enough to have installed a nanodetector in here somewhere..." he mutters.

[LeviM]

Peter begins rummaging through the facility. Buried deep in the drawers, he finds a toolkit containing a Nanodetector, a Utilitool, Specs, and a makeshift club. Jackpot.

[cpttanktop]

"What are doing back there? Oh, hmm, good finds."

Dr Myles steps toward the door, pausing momentarily to make sure his companions are ready before opening it.

"Guess I'll go first," he says uncertainly.

[Pyrite]

Peter steps up again, the utilitool secured in an outer pocket, and the nanodetector clipped to a belt. He holds a meter long structural metal cylinder he'd taken from the base of the pod he'd come in, resting against his shoulder, while he dramatically slips the specs on with his right hand. "Now I'm ready. But first, lets see what's out there."

Quickly subscribing his mesh inserts to the interface of each device, he turns on the T-Ray emitter in the specs, and switches them to terahertz range, scanning through the walls of the room.

[LeviM]

Scanning through the wall, you see an elegant garden with winding paths and lush trees and plants. The distance is limited to about 10 meters through the structure. Immediately outside the door is a biomorph lying on the floor, not moving.

Dr. Myles signals the door to open, and it slides gently to the side. Immediately, your eyes are drawn to the beautiful gardens outside the facility. Trees and flowers and other plants line gentle winding paths. The ship appears to be a U-shaped channel that curves upward at either end. Above you, mirrored shutters catch sunlight and direct it down into the ring. Between shutters, you can see the central corridor of the ship. The ring rotates around it, providing Martian gravity.

Along the center of the U-shaped deck, a single monorail runs, appearing to make a single loop around the ring. There are a few platforms scattered around. It does not appear to be functional.

Clockwise, to the left of the facility, is some multi-level suites. Counter-clockwise, to the right, appears to be an office building of some sort. You can see other buildings beyond those in both directions.

Right outside the door, is an Exalt morph lying face down on the floor. In his hand is a rail pistol. The other hand is firmly locked around the wrist of the armed hand. His face is contorted into a permanent, horrifying scream. A single wound to the side of the head and extensive damage to the other side seem to be the cause of death. It appears as though he unwillingly took his own life.

[Pyrite]

When the initial pass through reveals nothing of immediate importance, Peter goes ahead and sends the feed from the specs to the others through the network, and says, "It looks like we only have the body to worry about. Let's do this." He has his smart-clothing outfit vacuum seal around him as the door slides open.

As the door opens, he holds out the nanodetector toward the entrance, pulling in a small stream of the air in that direction and analyzing it. He winces at the expression on the face of the morph on the floor, then sets his jaw out and steps forward, still holding the nanodetector out in hopes that he'll have a chance of detecting a threat before it becomes unavoidable.

He glances to either side, sending his feed of what he sees.

[cpttanktop]

Dr Myles takes a tentative step towards the Exalt morph, carefully looking for any blood to avoid. As he finds a path to the gun hand that looks clear, he takes exaggerated care to take large, cartoon-ish steps, lightly placing the tips of each foot on the ground.

He bends down to the remove the gun from the Dahl's cold, dead hand. As he does so, his curiosity gets the better of him, and he begins to visually examine the body more closely for other wounds.

[LeviM]

Peter steps out in to a botanical paradise, easily rivaling any of the gardens on Mars or Luna. Winding paths lead in both directions up and away from the farcasting facility, toward the Living Suites and Meeting Rooms, respectively. The nanodetector hums along, not detecting anything.

Dr. Myles acquires the gun and investigates the body. Beyond the cause of death and unnatural scream, nothing else is evident. An autopsy could be performed to gain more insight.

[LeviM]

Sofia stands at the doorway. "I'm going to set up a makeshift base here. I'll stand guard and wait for you to return."

[Pyrite]

Peter nods back to her. "Wish us luck! You should see if you can figure out a way for us to farcast back out of here if we need to." He sweeps the nanodetector around a couple more times, just to make sure, then clips it back to his belt. "Well, there aren't any active swarms out here at least." He grimaces as he looks over the body. "Any idea what killed him?"

[cpttanktop]

"Appears as though he took his own life. I'd like to try to open him open to see what made him do this. He did also ask if we could get recover his stack."

Dr Myles takes a moment to consult the ship's map. He is unconsciously using the gun as a pointing device.

"There is a medical facility on this level. Perhaps we could move him their. I"m not exactly this kind of doctor, but I do know biomorphs pretty well. Maybe we can figure out what's gotten into everyone."

"I have to say though, I don't really want to touch him. Any thoughts on how we could carry him?"

As he says this, he starts to bring the gun up to scratch his temple. Suddenly realizing he is still armed, he gives a start. After a moment's consideration he holds the gun out to Peter. "Do you know how to use this? I've had some training in beam weapons for a VR game I programmed years ago, but I don't think I've ever fired a pistol like this before."

[Pyrite]

Peter stares at the man as he casually points the barrel around, and his jaw drops in horror as he moves to scratch his temple with it. He sidesteps the barrel as it's pointed at him and quickly but carefully removes it from Dr. Myles' hand. "Yeah... I had better handle that... they're a bit more finicky," he says diplomatically, quickly checking the gun's clip to see if it actually has ammo in it before setting it against his belt and having the smart material form a simple holster around it.

He remembers that he needs to breathe, and starts again with a bit of a cough. After a moment, he recovers and breaths normally again. "Alright." he says. "Been a while since I've needed lungs." He shakes his head, then looks at the corpse. "Well, I'm not detecting any nanoswarms, so we could trust our vacuum seals, or we could find some kind of stretcher. You know, that might be the sort of thing you would find in medical, so that would make a good first stop."

[cpttanktop]

"Ok, a stretcher, good, good. Looks like medical is on the other side of the ring. Left or right. Left should be the living suites, I say we try that way."

Dr Myles takes a few steps down the path to the multi-level suites.

{Alaster, are you picking up anything? I can't stand going dark; its horribly unsettling.}

[LeviM]

Alaster scans for any trace of a Mesh. {No, sir. Everything seems to be running on minimal power. Perhaps restoring power would bring the Mesh back up.}

[Pyrite]

Peter presses the makeshift club to his back, letting the smart-fabric form a sheath around it, and followed Dr. Myles to the left, keeping his eyes open. "Sounds like a plan."

As they walk in the silence of the habitat, Peter does a quick T-Ray scan through each new wall that comes into view. He feels a need to fill the silence with something. "Why do you think this Dahl guy won't tell us more about what's going on in here? Just to keep us from panicking?"

[cpttanktop]

"Sorry, Dahl? Oh, yes right. Uh, he claims that the fork of him we have talked to was given very little information. You would think a more thorough assessment of what has happened would have been some of the most important information to impart. Doesn't seem to add up to me."

[Pyrite]

Peter winces. "So my mind wasn't just assembled from the dregs of a data-buffer, it was done so by a beta fork. Wonderful." He sighs. "Well, I suppose he must have at least left in the programming aptitude, or we wouldn't be here at all."

[cpttanktop]

"Hmmm...yes, I suppose I hadn't really thought about it like that. You're quite jumpy-everything ok? I mean, other than the obvious," Dr Myles says, vaguely waving his hands in the air.

[Pyrite]

Peter sighs through his teeth. "I just... have a very active imagination. It's very busy right now filling the shadows with every ghastly possibility it can come up with. And I come from Luna by way of Earth, so I'm pretty familiar with a lot of very scary scenarios like this."

He's silent for a moment as they walk, then shakes his head. "The primal feedback from this body isn't helping matters, either. It's hard to convince yourself that everything will be fine when your heart is beating two hundred times a minute. Getting used to that again is going to be hard."

[cpttanktop]

Dr Myles nods his head knowingly. "I've always preferred a body to the digital life, but I can see the appeal. Oh, hmm, perhaps we should communicate silently considering our unusual circumstances," he says, continuing to speak out loud.

As they walk and talk, Dr Myles zones out to his surroundings, casually strolling up the path to the suites. He seems engrossed in the scenery, admiring the skill it would take to program this in a VR game and whether he might still have the chops to pull it off.

{Alaster, tag this feed so we can bring it up later. This garden is delightful! We should try to program a bit of this for my hab.}

{Indeed sir, it would be a challenge, but a happy one. Better than the endless menial tasks of programming another hypercorp-retreat murder-mystery

[LeviM]

The living suites loom above you. Two columns of luxury living quarters rise like silver hives, reaching towards the ceiling of the ship. After wandering through the gardens, it's a stark reminder that you are on a ship floating through space, somewhere.

Uncharacteristically, there is debris and furniture scattered all around the entrance of the living quarters complex. It looks like a warzone. The tone here is very different from the peaceful gardens you just left.

[cpttanktop]

As Dr Myles looks up, he's shocked back into the present. He immediately turns and lunges behind a bush that is much too small to fully obscure his Olympian morph.

{Peter, did you see something move?! This is a nightmare!}

[Pyrite]

Peter starts, having been in the middle of another T-Ray scan of the area. Between the walls and the plants, there was a lot of clutter, but he hoped if something was hiding behind a cloth or in a plastic crate he'd spot it. Myle's shout catches him by surprise, and he pulls the rail pistol and switches back to normal vision. "What?" he asks, scanning around.

{Damn. They really wrecked up the place in here... but I don't see anything.}

[cpttanktop]

{Uh, no, nothing in particular, but what is going on here?! I, I just thought...I don't know, I didn't really think this whole thing was real. But this doesn't look good at all. I guess your specs aren't picking up anything through all the walls and debris.}

Dr Myles begins an active search in the very near vicinity for a club-like piece of metal or sturdy wood. Perhaps a thick chair or table leg.

{Peter I think you have the right of it; do you see another club around here?}

[cpttanktop]

Roll to find a club in the debris
[roll0] vs Scrounging 25

[Pyrite]

Peter takes a few breaths, keeping the pistol out but pointed upward, as he looks over at Dr. Myles beginning to rummage through the refuse. {This isn't a simulspace, and I know I'm not important enough to arrange a prank like this around when it would take actual effort. Whatever is going on here, it's playing for keeps.}

[LeviM]

A pile of rubble collapses as a naked Fury morph leaps out of it and sprints towards the two of you.

Initiative order:
Dr. Myles
Peter
Fury

[cpttanktop]

Dr Myles leaps from behind the tiny shrub and rushes toward the oncoming Fury morph. He makes a dramatic showing of brandishing his newly-acquired metal pipe and takes a heavy swing. Being just out of reach though, the swing missing badly and Dr Myles stumbles a bit to the side. He barely keeps his wits, and feet, for the moment.

[Pyrite]

Peter points the gun at the charging fury, the barrel only shaking a little. He shouts "Hold it! Hold it right there, or I'll shoot!"

[LeviM]

After your intimidating display, you realize that there is little humanity left in this morph. The eyes are lifeless and the morph is drooling slightly. Doesn't look like it's willing to talk. It continues to run towards you, quickly closing the distance.

Next round

Dr. Myles
Peter
Deranged Fury Morph

[cpttanktop]

Taking a split second, Dr Myles sizes up his best chance for hit. His swing looks a bit short-armed again, but the Fury, attempting to step inside the swing, walks right into a vicious cut.

Dr Myles echoes the thud with a satisfied grunt of his own and shifts his weight back, preparing to duck the inevitable retaliation.

[Pyrite]

Peter lines up the shot, swallows, and pulls the trigger twice. The recoil pulls the second shot off target.

[LeviM]

The club attack lands home with a solid thud, but the Fury seems unfazed by the damage. He deftly dodges the pistol shot and then swings a closed fist at Dr. Myles, missing wildly.

Next round.

[cpttanktop]

Dr Myles ducks in the wrong direction, but the fury punches to the side, expecting a side dodge. Dr Myles gets pretty good leverage on his next swing with the metal pipe, but connects with only air.

[Pyrite]

Peter's barrel moves carefully as it follows the Fury morph, not wanting to fire carelessly now that the two of them are in the thick of things. He waits for just the right moment and fires again, the crack of the sound barrier breaking making up for the lack of an explosion.

[LeviM]

The Fury dodges out of the way of the club attack, right into the path of the bullet. The bullet tears through his left shoulder, spraying blood everywhere. The wounded Fury leaps towards Dr. Myles, trying to grab on to him, but Dr. Myles bats him away with his club.

[cpttanktop]

Clearly taken aback by the blood spray now covering him, Dr Myles rushes another attack, missing badly.

[Pyrite]

Peter sets his tongue between his teeth as he carefully follows the action, waiting for the Fury break away from Myles again for a moment and squeezing the trigger, sending another steel projectile screaming toward it.

[LeviM]

The badly injured Fury turns and flees towards the living suites. Neurachem pumping through it's veins, it quickly gets away from you. Before you can even consider chasing, you hear a click and the Fury is consumed in a giant explosion. The shockwave knocks the two of you to the ground.

Undamaged, you stand up to see a large hole in the side of the second hive. Debris radiates outward from the blast point.

[LeviM]

Clyde pops up. {Yo, looks like that fool was blown to bits. Must be some traps and **** up there.}

[Pyrite]

Peter quickly retrieves the railgun pistol from the ground and scrambles to one knee, taking long deep breaths as he stares at the hole left by the explosives. As the dust settles, and after a few moments of silence, he holsters the pistol again and turns to Myles, helping him up if he needs it. {Are you ok?} he asks over the mesh. {This place is ****ing crazy. Someone planted a damn explosive tripwire over there.}

[cpttanktop]

Taking Peter's offered hand, Myles gets to his feet.

{Thanks. I think I am okay, somehow. He must have tripped something off. I guess we're lucky it was him, not us. You look to be in one piece too. Nice shooting, you saved our borrowed butts.
Can those specs of yours check for any more trip wires? It might be invisible, I didn't notice anything.}

[Pyrite]

Peter gets shakily to his feet, the adrenaline high wearing off. He takes about a minute to carefully scan the area the Fury went through, and the area past it, using both T-Rays and regular magnified vision. {Thanks, though I'm down to one round, so I hope we won't need much more shooting. I'll see what I can find, but these things aren't exactly state of the art espionage gear.}

[LeviM]

There does not appear to be any more traps. Clyde runs a reverse simulation of the rubble. Ghost images of the rubble rebuild itself into barricades in your entropics. {Looks like those SpecOps goons were all up in here}.

Careful searches of the area reveal some equipment caches. You find:
Nanobandage x5
Repair Spray x2
Medium Rail Pistol
5 clips of ammo
Shock Baton
Frag Grenade x2

[LeviM]

You also find two decapitated morphs. Their armored vests are still in perfect condition.

Armored Vest x2 (Armor 6/6, Page 312)

[Pyrite]

Peter takes another few minutes to go over the simulation models Clyde has put together in his optics. {Holy ****. Thanks Clyde. That puts things into perspective.}

He shakes his head, and turns to Myles. {This place was a war zone. Somebody set up a chokepoint here, and these two poor souls died defending it. I think the way is clear now, it looks like that was probably an HE grenade set up on a tripwire or something.}

Showing little sign of his previous nervousness, Peter carefully but confidently approaches a pile of rubble in a corner and reaches down to fish out a black bag. {Lucky for us, whoever stripped their gear didn't find these equipment caches.} he starts looking through the bag. {This is like a special ops care package. Hey, Myles, would you be up to getting the armor vests off those guys? I think we'll need them more than they will.}

He starts distributing the gear, replacing his club with the shock baton and replacing the nearly-empty clip in his gun. He keeps one nanobandage and hands the rest to Myles, along with one of the repair sprays. He considers the spare gun and the grenades. {Hey man, do you think you're up to handling a weapon? You seemed a bit unfocused about them before, but we really might need to both be armed.}

[cpttanktop]

Beginning to walk over to the two dead bodies out of curiosity, Myles secondarily notices the perfectly-preserved armored vests.

{Yes, the vests, of course.}

Completing the short journey Dr Myles bends down to remove the vests and perform a check on the bodies.

{Well, of course the missing heads are the main issue here. But how did they lose them? That fury seemed crazy; not the kind of customer that would be thinking about cleaning up evidence in my mind.}

In response to Peter's question, Dr Myles turns to him, still kneeling next to the body and allows his focus to pull to his brother-in-arms.

{Yes. Yes I can handle the gun. And perhaps the grenades too, I've had a small bit of training trying to "get a feel" for their physics. Of course that was mostly just a youthful excuse to get to toss around some grenades...}

Again he looks at Peter. {Ah, right, focus. Anyway, yes, I've got this, though I think you should keep at least three of the extra clips.}

After returning to focus on the bodies again, he gathers together the two vests and takes a few moments during the walk back to Peter to analyze his findings via his eidetic memory.

[Pyrite]

Peter looks at Myles seriously, then walks over to him and takes the spare railgun pistol by the barrel, removing the clip if it has one in it, and hands it grip-first to Myles. {Alright, but considering the situation we are going to have some rules about this. I don't want to see this anywhere but in a holster, pointing out in front of us, pointing at something trying to kill us, or pointing at the ceiling. Can you promise me that?}

Assuming he hears a yes, Peter pulls out the other grenade. {And these are fun to play with, but we only have two in an enclosed area so they are only for an abolutely 'oh **** son' situation. Do not juggle it.}

That handled, he hands Myles two of the spare clips as well as the one from his gun, and sets the other three he has behind the holster.

he speaks aloud to try to kick both of their morale up. "Come on, we can do this. We've got a medical bay to get to."

[cpttanktop]

{Sir, you do recall that grenades can be set to go off on a timer or signal, yes? Perhaps we should perform a scan before we get too far
}

{Indeed? Yes certainly a scan.}

Concurrently, Myles places the gun on his hip, mirroring Peter's movements early. A holster forms around the gun and the firearm settles into place. With a quick head nod he begins scanning the grenades.

[Pyrite]

Having distributed supplies, and put on the salvaged vests, Peter leads the way on once again toward the medical bay.

[cpttanktop]

{Ok, the grenades are safe.}

Myles quick-steps to follow Peter, doing his best to be mindful of the dangerous weapons he is now carrying.

{According to the map sirs, we should find the Pool area next. Or at least whatever is left of it.}

[LeviM]

Moving past the silvery hives that are the living suites, the devastation continues to increase. The pool area is surrounded by a tiled patio. The patio area is covered in destroyed chairs and bodies. The water in the pool is dark with blood and muck. There is a ruined bar with a few glass bottles still intact.

Beyond the bar, you can see a ultra-modern living area with luxurious accommodations.

[Pyrite]

Peter walked steadily beside Myles, seeming actually calmer now that he has a better idea of what he's up against. When they clear a corner and come into view of the pool, he stops dead, just taking in the scene, his breathing going scarily regular.

{This was a massacre.} he comments

[cpttanktop]

It's a few moments before Myles does or says anything, staring unblinkingly at the scene.

{Oh yes, yes, this is horrible.}

Myles begins slowly walking forward towards the pool. He stops after a few steps, looks back at Peter, and indicates for Peter to circle around to the other side. He gives a small half-smile and shrug, as if to say, "I guess we should check this place out, I don't know what else to do."

He pulls his focus to the pool for a closer look.

[Pyrite]

Peter gives him a wide-eyed look. {I'm not so sure about splitting up. We need to be able to support each other if something comes crawling out of that.} He glanced around, then pulled the shock baton free, gesturing to the murky mass of water. {How about we go together, and I keep an eye on the pool while you watch where we're going.}

[cpttanktop]

Watching Peter's actions, Myles readies the metal pipe.

{Ah, yes, we should indeed stick close, very good idea.}

[Pyrite]

Peter walks slightly behind Myles, with the shock baton held in his right hand, and gazes over the water. His breath catches as he notices something moving below the waves, and his stance changes, his eyes flitting over the surface as he tries to be ready for whatever might emerge. {Myles? let's not take too much time here.}

[cpttanktop]

Briefly torn with indecision, Myles looks towards the bodies for a moment. Then he moves to what he feels is an extra-safe distance to skirt the whole scene. As Peter keeps an eye on the pool, Myles looks ahead again, taking another moment to scan their path ahead. In a moment of recall, Myles crouches for what he thinks is a better view of possible trip wires.

[LeviM]

Myles does not see notice any more trip wires. Close inspection of the bodies lying around the pool leave no noticeable wounds. They seem perfectly intact. There are a variety of sylphs, olympians, and other pretty morphs lying around.

The surface of the water is covered in a thick layer of much. It appears to be a mixture of blood and organic tissue floating on the surface. It's hard to tell if the movement you saw was real or a trick of the floating mass.

[Pyrite]

A longer look at the pool's surface does little to set Peter's mind at ease. He switches the shock baton from hanging loosely by his side to propped up on his shoulder every twenty seconds or so as they walk. He has a thought, hesitates, then switches his specs to infrared to take a look at the pool.

[cpttanktop]

Not noticing Peter's hesitation, Myles says, {The way forward looks clear. I don't see any tripwires.} He continues to slowly move forward keeping a watch towards the next area.

[LeviM]

In the infrared, Peter can see the mass has some latent heat signature. Beneath the surface, tendrils can be seen running down to the bottom of the pool.

Suddenly, the mass launches one of the tendrils out at Myles, who wandered just close enough. It latches around his throat and begins to pull him towards the pool. He is currently 15 meters from the pool.

Looks like Dr. Myles is up first.

[cpttanktop]

Eyes bulging in fear, and from having his head squeezed, Dr Myles lets his metal pipe fall to the ground with a clank. Keeping his wits about him, somehow, he draws his pistol and fires off two rounds without really even thinking.

With luck ever on his side, Myles hits once without even aiming. He tenses his legs, hoping the bullet will encourage the creature to let him go.

[Pyrite]

When the roiling red mass of heat inside the pool curls and lashes out, something clicks inside of Peter. His eyes dilate, and all extraneous thought disappears into the back of his mind. He doesn't hesitate, letting the shock baton fall aside in his left hand while his right pulls the rail pistol, wirelessly switching it to burst fire mode as it comes free of the holster. His aim follows the tendril between the pool and Myles, and he squeezes the trigger twice, sending a tight group of bullets into the heart of the red mass under the water.

[cpttanktop]

Shaken, it takes Myles a split second to realize that the tendril wrapped around his neck was severed completely off. The hail of bullets from Peter snaps Myles out of his daze. Free for the moment, Myles tries to spring away from the mass in the pool.

[LeviM]

The mass shutters as the pistol unloads into it. It stops moving and starts to sink below the surface of the water.

The pair relaxes slightly before the mass comes back up. It pulls two water-logged dead bodies up from the pool and launches them towards Dr. Myles and Peter.

[LeviM]

The pair tries to dodge the transhuman projectiles, but fail. Both bodies solidly hit their targets, knocking them to the ground. Dr. Myles notices that these bodies are swollen like a typical drowning victim, but the seem to be continuing to swell.

[cpttanktop]

"Argh!" Myles screams as he shoves the dead body off. "They're still bloating, Peter, get away from these things!"

As he pushes the body off and leaps to his feet, he makes a mad dash and jumps behind the bar.

[Pyrite]

Peter is already scrambling to get the swelling corpse off of him as Myles talks, identifying a very bad situation when he sees one. He twists over and onto his feet, then does a vault over the bar. He doesn't recover from the landing as well as he used to be able to do in a synth, taking a moment to reorient himself behind cover.

[LeviM]

Behind cover, the pair hear two loud pops as the corpses explode, leaving a fine mist of blood and gas in the air. Alaster chimes in {That mist appears dangerous. I recommend avoiding it.}

The thing in the pool seems to have submerged.

[Pyrite]

Peter peeks up over the bar. "I..." He freezes, then continues by transmission. {I think it's gone back under. Should we just sneak past it? Should we try to use our grenades to blow it up? We're going to need to come back this way...}

[cpttanktop]

Watching Peter stick his head up, Myles does the same, looking towards the next area and then back towards where the bodies exploded. {Well, if this ship really is a big circle as our map suggests we should be able to, in theory, circle around this room if need be. I think if we can just sneak out of here, maybe seal this room off, we wouldn't have to use the grenades.}

Myles has a quick thought and looks around for an empty bottle and something that could be used, even roughly, as tweezers. {Maybe I could get a sample of the flesh from one of these exploded corpses?}

[Pyrite]

Peter nods. {Yeah, just keep going until we get back where we started, that sounds good.} He looks at Peter and blanches at his suggestion, then swallows hard. {Do whatever you need to do, but see if there's any way you can seal whatever you put it in. We're vac-sealed, so we should be fine, but we can't keep that up forever and we don't want to contaminate everything.}

With that, Peter stands and begins sidestepping as far around the pool as he can, keeping it in sight, gun out and ready to shoot any more tentacles that might emerge. He moves slowly, giving Myles the time he needs to work.

[cpttanktop]

Ducking back behind the bar, Myles checks the floor and finds some empty bottles and some caps still mostly intact. He picks up the two cleanest bottles and two sturdiest caps and inches out around the bar again. Reaching around the front of the bar, he takes one bottle and scrapes off the remains of one of the bodies. After getting a small sample, he pulls the bottle back and caps it, still mostly hiding behind the cover of the bar.

Risking a look towards the pool, he takes the other empty bottle and takes a step in front of the bar. He quickly swipes his arm, and the bottle, through the air and loosely caps it. Myles then quickly steps back behind the bar and fully tightens the cap.

The confidence Myles displayed while grabbing the samples quickly erodes. He looks to where Peter is making his way out of the pool area and copies his path.

[LeviM]

The gas is not corrosive. No movement is visible in the pool. Everything appears to be safe, for now.

[Pyrite]

Peter continues to circle the pool at a wide angle, picking up the pace as Myles catches up to him, and he doesn't turn his back to it until they're at least fifty yards away, or behind another wall.

[cpttanktop]

As Peter keeps an eye behind them, Myles focuses on their path ahead, occasionally checking for any changes in Peter's body language.

[LeviM]

The pair clears the pool area, and then makes their way to a multi-story meeting area. Signs indicate this is the Starbourn Square, a posh living area for meetings, lunch, and other events. This area appears to be untouched by the crazy going on elsewhere.

The tables and chairs are perfectly aligned, as if this ship just left drydock. In the center of the meeting area is a man in a menton morph, sitting at a table, sipping from a glass of whiskey. He does not appear to have noticed you.

[Pyrite]

Peter, who had been slightly in the lead, freezes. He'd never quite returned the pistol to it's holster, and still doesn't yet. He gestures with his free hand to point the man out to Myles. {Someone up ahead. Any chance he could be a reasonable, not-crazy human being? We should probably try to talk to him, but we need to be ready in case he flips out and tries to kill us. Can you fan out over at an angle, I'll see if he can be talked to.}

[cpttanktop]

{Got it, not crazy.}

Myles waits for Peter to start moving again and then fans out in the other direction, but not too far. He puts his hand near, but not on, the gun at his hip.

{Say, Alaster, you've read a lot on psychology. Does this guys seem normal to you?}

{As opposed to you, sir? I imagine he knows exactly what is happening here, so I advise caution. Other than that, it is difficult to tell as he sits there.

[Pyrite]

Peter carefully and quietly makes his way over to the other Menton, also half keeping a hand on his pistol. {Clyde, is he broadcasting any mesh signals?}

At just outside of ten meters, he calls out to him.
"Er... Hello. Enjoying your drink? We're not crazy. I hope you're not crazy."

[LeviM]

Clyde responds {He is not broadcasting anything. It appears his inserts are offline.}

The man does not look up, but just keeps swirling his whiskey. "Crazy? Maybe. Who knows? But then, who cares?"

[Pyrite]

Peter takes a couple steps forward at the lack of an immediate violent response. "Well, you're the first person we've seen so far that hasn't been dead or tried to kill us, so we care. Were you here when all this went down? What happened here?"

[cpttanktop]

Myles is staring intently back and forth from Peter and the man. He begins to step closer to mirror Peter on the man's other side, though he is not quite on the exact opposite of the man from Peter.

[LeviM]

He takes another sip of his liquor. "Something tragic. Well, maybe not tragic. Tragic if you think death is a tragedy. I was here. I am here. I don't know if those are connected."

[cpttanktop]

Before he can stop himself, Myles asks, "who are you? Are you part of the ship's crew?" He stops speaking and looks slightly worried for a moment, quickly replaying what he just asked in his head and checking it for crazy. Finding it relatively safe in his estimation, he looks over quickly to Peter with a sheepish grin.

{This guy is creeping me out even more than that pool monster.}

[LeviM]

"Am I part of the crew? I suppose. Are they part of me? Indeed. I am me, but they are me. Milton, Andrew, Cyril, Colleen. They rise up and fall away like ocean waves on the shore."

He then locks eyes with Myles. "Who are you?" Myles finds it difficult to break his gaze.

[cpttanktop]

Clearing his throat and standing a bit taller, Dr Myles just can't seem to break the stare. He does however deliver what sounds like a very scripted introduction.

"Good day sir. I am Dr Myles Harris, you may have heard of me. I am a noted authority on realistic VR programming. My primary skills lie in biomorphs, but many of the techniques I teach are applicable to synths as well. I..."

He breaks off suddenly. He turns his gaze to Peter with a shocked expression. {I'm sorry Peter, that wasn't the introduction I started to give. That was meant more for a lecture audience.}

With that explanation, Peter gets the distinct impression that not only did that sound scripted, but that Dr Myles literally has a set of scripted introductions saved for particular occasions.

{Alaster, anything on him yet, especially after that?}

[Pyrite]

Peter opens his mouth, then closes it again, uncertain how to follow that up. The man's intensity and odd way of explaining himself unsettles him. Finally, he blurts out "What do you mean the crew is part of you? Like, they're in your head?"

[LeviM]

The man barely responds to Dr. Myles' inappropriate introduction, instead replies, "I'm not really sure. They are here. And so am I."

[cpttanktop]

"Hmmm, ok, let's try a different subject, yes? What are you doing here? And I mean you, not the rest of the crew. The person that used to inhabit THAT body." He emphasizes his point by gesturing towards the menton morph and looking him up and down.

Dr Myles glances around the room for a moment, trying to etch as many details in his mind as he can with a quick glance.

[Pyrite]

Peter grows twitchy, watching the man carefully, not liking what he's heard so far. Being restored from a buffer was already a frightening prospect if he allowed himself to think about it, but the idea of having four minds in your head, or more, did nothing to put him further at ease.

[Clyde, does he seem like he's actually got four people uploaded in there, or has he just gone technical?]

[LeviM]

Clyde responds [Dunno, hard to say. There's some weird **** on this boat. Let's get the hell out of here.]

The Menton looks at Dr. Myles, "I'm not sure what you mean. I must be going now. There are things to do." With that he gets up, brushing crumbs from his smart clothing.

[Pyrite]

As he stands, Peter runs a T-Ray scan over him, looking for the shadows of weapons hidden under his clothing.

[cpttanktop]

{Peter, should we shoot him?}

Myles' hand shakes as he slowly and carefully reaches down to the gun at his hip. His hand wavers and his shoulders slump slightly, realizing he probably couldn't bring himself to do it.

[LeviM]

The man fully stands up, looks at the pair, then turns and starts walking toward the center of the station, where a tiny train station straddles the track running all along the ship.

[cpttanktop]

"Excuse me, but what is it you are going to do? Are areas of this ship still functional? Can't you tell us anything about what's going on here?!!"

[Pyrite]

{He's not armed. I've done some things in my past that I'm not too proud of, but I'm not a cold-blooded murderer. I am not prepared to live with having shot him for acting a little crazy in this situation.}

Peter stands and watches him for a while, using the specs magnification to keep him in sight. When he notices the train station, he points it out to Myles. {Hey, do you think there's any possibility that thing still runs?}

[cpttanktop]

{I guess we'll find out if he can use it. I thought the central power was out, but let's see if he activates it somehow.}

Myles takes a few steps to get into a better position to watch the man leave.