Play@YSDC

The plane ride was routine though dull. The hotel he was invited to stay at was up-market and also dull. It was simply too perfectly set up. It simply blended into every other hotel room because of it. He had a meeting with Carter the following day at 1:30. He had time to go over the information he had in his possession on his laptop to be sure of things before dinner and before that appointment.

The most obvious place to start were the files on Natasha Chaikovskaya. She was the epigrapher (translator of ancient languages) on the trip and yet, by rights, her childhood should indicate gross language problems - not a mastery of languages both modern (she could speak Latin, Italian, Russian, Tatar, English and German) and had deciphered an ancient language that still left others baffled. While other linguists could see what she had found, they seemed to lack the capacity to decipher any further, whereas she had begun to write samples of what other phrases might look like.

Accessed Prop 3.

Alexander had barely noticed his surroundings, too withdrawn in thought and uninterested in what was going on around him. He slowly read the report twice and the news clipping once. He then went on to shift-delete it all.

Another set of information on his laptop identified the various macarbe locations where the Liltian Tablets have each been found, largely by accident. There is also a dog-eared copy of the newly published Translations of the Kamchatka Expedition Diary sitting on the cabinet from where it was recently unpacked. It is suspected that some clues as to why the mountain was declared legally off-limits for so long might be contained within.

Alexander scribbled down a few notes as he read and then tossed the documentation aside.

There is also a basic run-down on the well-known details of the bizarre scientific phenomena.

Alexander nods a few times as he reads through the report. Those Copepods would be worthy of an expedition on their own... They hold much potential (but also danger), if they could be made capable to survive outside the mountain's environment.

The next thing to flick through is a classified ship's logfound in a Russian ship that was adrift without her crew with only blood stains to tell the tale of some sort of fight. It was presumed that several sailors went mad and attacked their compatriots. The whole scene was buried quickly and away from the public eye.

Alexander tosses it aside quicker than the previous documents. This one seems to contain little useful information.

He sees the police reporton Daniel Carter, back when he used to be called Liam Carter, before his name change and move to Berlin several years ago.

Alexander smiles as he folds the paper up and pockets it.

That was all he had been delivered so far. More information was to come. The only other pieces of information he knew was that Milly LeCrique, the German science geek, was rumored to have a suspiciously lusty past. He now had the night and the rest of tomorrow morning to deal with. On the night stand was a museum advertisement for an exhibit he could view tomorrow. Other than that possibility, there was no suggestions for what to do with his night nor morning.

Alexander turns to what he does best, and starts to research the possibility of landborne Copepods, and the relation to their host once they attach to another animal. He's interesting in finding information about the exact nature of the relationship between both. Is it purely parasitic, or is it symbiotic?

Once done, he'll refresh his working (Pharmaceutical) knowledge of anti-depressants as well as do some online shopping.

Copepods are a species of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every fresh-water habitat. Most copepods are planktonic (drifting in sea waters), but more are benthic (living on the ocean floor). Some copepods are parasitic and have strongly modified bodies. They attach themselves to fish, sharks, marine mammals, and many kinds of invertebrates such as molluscs, tunicates, or corals. They live as endo- or ectoparasites on fish or invertebrates in fresh water as well as in marine environments.

(that much he already should've known I think, since as said before they are useful tools to fight certain type of diseases by killing the mosquito larvae in water supplies. thus preventing them to become actual mosquitos and spread disease through sucking blood. I was more looking for the relation between host & parasite, the effects on the host and what happens when the parasite was removed and how.

other than that, he's also looking for any mention of other landborne copepods being sighted, since that's not a usual thing)

The parasites can co-exist within the host without negative effect. Even a half dozen or more have been sited on the same fish without apparent ill effect, though there may be some pain. The difficulty in removing them rests with the fact that they exist partially within the heart cavity. There are no other incidences of parasitic land-borne copepod species known.

Lozynsky manages to get most of his online shopping out of the way before the hours starts becoming unreasonable. His dreams are disturbed by an ever present rain that drums away at the back of his mind, washing it all away, but he's not sure if the raining is occurring inside or outside of his head until he awakens to a brightly lit morning with a stomach that is arguing for a good breakfast. He had a few hours of sight seeing he could try to accomplish before the meeting with Carter, one option of which was to drop by and give the Tablet a visit, though he had seen one before.

Alexander forces himself out of bed and into the shower. He puts on a jogging suit and goes off to run. Not something he'd usually do, but he's forcing himself to do it fearing that his physical condition might hamper the expedition.

When he returns three quarters of an hour later, he takes another -longer- shower and heads down for breakfast.

The eating area is set up with a number of tables bearing white table cloths. There is a range of breakfast materials he can choose to purchase. There are a few others sitting at the tables but none of whom resemble any of the photographs of the other expedition members.

He takes a light breakfast, as his body hasn't fully recovered of the jog yet. He reads a stuffy report on the evolution of SARS on his PDA as he enjoys a cup of tea.

A cheerfully smiling man approaches the table, dressed in a smart casual outfit, and brushing his fingers through his short brown hair before holding it out to shake. "Hey, Doctor Lozynsky, I'm Dmitri Kasiliev, sent by Ophidian to see how you're going, show you around the city and set you up on this media circuit."