Play@YSDC

Day 2
12th March 2189
13:10 Earth Central European Time
Barnard's Rest Colony, Titan

Kiara and Li leave the Landing Bay for the deserted Transport Hub. As they turn into the eerily quiet corridor leading towards the Medical Clinic there's a quiet but high pitched whine. Li looks at something on her wrist and then swears, 'Shit, someone's trying to access the shuttle.'

Kiara’s face drops. “Crap; that’s my- our ticket out of here. Y’know, we might need it to get everyone off-world I mean. C’mon, let’s see who it is.”

Oh, forgot about that!

“Actually, we might not have time to go all the way there. Least we can do is patch into the monitoring system and see who it is.”

Kiara connects her datapad to the colony network and accesses the security cameras in the Shuttle Bay. The cameras are set quite far back from the shuttle so it is difficult to make out details but it looks like there is a great crowd of people collecting around the shuttle. Some of them seem to have climbed onto the shuttle's aerofoils. At the head of them, standing on one of the wings, is a man in some kind of robe. He seems to be riling up the crowd although it is not possible to make out what he is saying through the microphones which are only picking up the sound of many voices raised in shouts and anger. The figure looks familiar, heavyset, receding red hair, scraggly beard, it's Administrator Kingsley.

Li laughs, 'Don't worry. They're not getting inside without my say so. Company wouldn't leave an expensive piece of kit like that unsecured.' She presses something else on her wrist and in the camera feed Kiara can see one of the people trying the shuttle door clutching his hand in pain and falling to the ground. 'Non-lethal electric shock' says Li. As she continues to watch, Kiara sees more people clamber over the fallen man and start attacking the door again, he doesn't resurface.

“Any way we can connect to the shuttle remotely? I don’t want to fight my way through everyone if we need it in a hurry,” Kiara asks, watching the scrambling throng.

“Either way, let’s get to sickbay before the others radio in.”

Li shakes her head, 'You can fly the shuttle on autopilot but you'd still have to get on board first. And we'd need someone in the Shuttle Bay Control Room to open the dome.'

-----

Arriving at the Medical Clinic the door is locked shut. After a minute of hammering Nurse Richards reluctantly slides the door half open and hurries them inside. He returns to stuffing various medical supplies into a large holdall bag. Around his waist there are several surgical blades and syringes tied on with bandages. 'Didn't you hear the transmission? You need to get somewhere safe. Whole colony is falling apart, CENTRAL's stopped working, everyone's abandoned their posts, Kingsley's organised some great religious meeting in the Interfaith Chapel. I'm getting out of here.'

“We just saw Kingsley on a monitor, leading a mob and trying to get into our shuttles,” Kiara replies grimly. “Which is a problem if you want to escape.”

“Let me collect some samples of infected material and we can work something out.”

Taking a deep breath, she looks from Richards to Li.

“There are people driving to pumping station six in an effort to fix this. We’ve got a chopper: we can fly out to them, or use it to disperse the crowd and get the hell out of here on the shuttle. Either way, there’s no safe haven on this station.”

Richards opens the sample drawers and Kiara is able to grab as many as she wants. Richards shrugs, 'Keep those samples safe. Sounds like the infection has spread in the colony. I was gonna wait for the evacuation shuttle. I'm not taking on Kingsley and those religious nutters. Besides, the message from Richter Dynamics said to hold tight and not try to leave.'

Ling looks uncomfortable, 'I don't think we can disperse that crowd with the copter, it won't get in through the Shuttle Bay dome for a start.' Then she whispers to Kiara, 'There's also only two seats.'

Kiara pauses for a moment, before coming to a decision.

“Screw it, I can’t bail now…”

She lines up a few samples for testing.

“Let me scan these samples and try to work out how to kill the infectious cells - Nurse Richards you can help if you like. Li, please can you watch the door, just in case?”

Kiara accesses Jojo's memory dump to see what he has found out so far. This gives her some ideas about how to go about investigating the cellular samples from Montrose, even though she's far from being medically trained. Macroscopically they're unremarkable but at higher magnification they look very odd indeed. Some, labelled as skin and subcutaneous tissue, remind her of grasses she studied in biology classes, where silica phytoliths are deposited within the cell body, making it tough and inflexible. Other cells, labelled as internal and subcutaneous tissues, are reminiscent of algal diatoms, where the cell wall itself is made of silica. Jojo indicates he thinks this explains some odd artefacts he found when imaging the body, dense inorganic material in the tissue interfering with the x-ray and magnetic resonance.

Jojo also noticed that the grass-like cells were photosensitive and Kiara confirms this. They extrude inorganic material when exposed to high intensity visible and ultraviolet electromagnetic spectrums. Jojo notes that this extruded inorganic material looks very much like the green powdery substance with a slightly filamentous surface they found on the body. It does, however, differ from the scaly material in the subcutaneous tissue which seems to be more due to the diatom-like silica-walled cells.

Jojo also compared Montrose's DNA to that he extracted from the cells and found no evidence of abnormal sequences or methylation. His conclusion was that this is an extraterrestrial pathogen with a biology that is not purely carbon-based.

Unless you have any ideas about what you'd like to test on the cells I'm going to need a Luck roll and a Science-Biology or Medicine roll to see what Kiara can figure out.

[43] = 43
Luck 60 d%:  [ 43 ] = 43

[25] = 25
Science biology 20 d%:  [ 25 ] = 25

Ok, gonna spend 5 luck (thankfully I still make the luck roll!)

Kiara beavers away. The work is difficult: despite coming from a so-called ‘genius’ family, biology is not her field.

She is about to throw in the towel, when inspiration strikes…

Initially Kiara follows the obvious path of bombarding the cells with various wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. The ultraviolet spectrum in particular seems to cause the cells to extrude the filamentous material and eventually rupture but it doesn't affect the diatom-like deeper cell samples.

Infrared radiation has no deleterious effect, in fact, if anything, it potentiates the activity of the cells, combining it with the ultraviolet and the grass-like cells extrude and rupture even more rapidly. Focusing the infrared on the diatomous cells doesn't cause them to rupture, instead it accelerates their transformation from normal eukaryotes into the alien silica walled cells.

Following this line of thought she tries lowering the temperature and finds that the transformed cells are highly resistant to low temperatures with none of the cell wall damage usually seen when cytoplasm freezes. But she also notes that at very low temperatures the cellular transformations completely stop and when she bombards the grass-like cells with UV nothing happens. It looks like freezing temperatures arrest the alien pathogen, but don't destroy it.

Lol thanks. I’m a bear of very little brain.

Kiara tries to outline what she’s discovered in layman’s terms to the other two.

“I don’t know how it helps us though… perhaps someone else will…”

Muttering to herself, she prepares to transmit the data on all frequencies. Hopefully the crew of the rover, and anyone else who happens to be listening, will find the data useful.

'Thanks, that will prove helpful,' replies Sam over the radio. 'Looks like we're dealing with a silicon-based lifeform. We just ran across someone out on the surface in a suit - almost literally, but we stopped just in time. We're about to take a closer look.'

“Be careful; if it’s someone infected… we’ll, I don’t need to tell you what might happen,” Kiara radios back, relieved that Sam and co. are alright.

“Please keep me updated; I need to know when we can take off so we arrive just before you guys. In the meantime I’ll see what I can do with this data. Kiara out.”

She turns once again to her pad, explaining her actions to Li and Richards as she taps away.

“I’m checking the station’s stores manifest for emergency flares or suchlike. If I can combine them with some kind of UV source, perhaps I could build something that produces an intense blast of heat and UV. Hmm, Nurse Richards, do you have a tanning booth or something you use to treat skin conditions?”

'Tanning booth, what do you think we do here?' spits Richards, incredulously. Then he laughs, 'Do you mean an ultraviolent phototherapy lamp? Yeah, we've got one of those,' he shakes his head.

Looking through the station manifest Kiara finds evidence of flares, cutting torches (including some rated for use in the oxygen-free atmosphere of Titan), and incinerators.

I think that's a Library Use or Accounting roll to figure out exactly where they are stored.

[39] = 39
Library use 35 d%: [ 39 ] = 39
Sod it, I’ll spend 4 more luck.

The incinerators are stored in Engineering but there's only a couple, the others may have all of them all already. There's a number of cutting torches in Engineering also but the specialist atmospheric torches are stored in a locker in the surface rover garage along with the flares.

“Looks like we’re better off heading to the garage. We can get the flares, maybe torches, and cobble something together,” announces Kiara.

Richards shows Kiara the phototherapy lamp and then finishes packing the rest of his stuff. 'I'm finding somewhere to hide and I suggest you do the same, hole up somewhere until the rescue shuttle comes.' As he turns to open the Medical Bay door he turns and says 'Good luck.'

Kiara and Li struggle to disconnect the lamp and then carry it with them. By the time they get out of the Medical Bay Nurse Richards is long gone. In the corridors there are a few people visible now. Furtive looking they scurry about, seemingly spending as little time out in the open as they can.

Arriving back at the Garage the door is sealed shut because the exterior door is open and the Garage is open to Titan's atmosphere. Kiara punches button to close the outside door and purge the atmospheric gases. The process is slow and Ling Li asks 'How long is this going to take?' gesturing to the far end of the corridor where a number of figures have appeared.

“I don’t know,” Kiara replies, casting an anxious glance towards the gathering crowd.

“I things start to get threatening, we’ll cut our losses and get back to the chopper.”

The atmospheric cycling continues very slowly, the Garage is a large space after all. Kiara reckons the crowd will be on them before the door is open. She also thinks she can see someone in an odd robe at the head of the crowd, looks like Kingsley.

You could try and get into the Landing Bay before they arrive, roll Electrical Repair or Computers to persuade the life support system to gas the Garage more quickly. Or wait for Kingsley and his pals and have a chat.

“Hm, I think we’d better make ourselves scarce,” Kiara mutters. “I don’t fancy our chances with that lot. Let’s go back to the hangar.”

Kiara and Li hurriedly open the door to the Landing Bay and slam it shut behind them before the crowd draw too close.

'So what do we do now?' asks Li. 'Wait here and hope they don't get in or leave early for Waystation?'

“Let’s access the security cameras,” Kiara suggests. “That way we can keep an eye on that lot.”

“You’d better prep for flight, in case we need to make a hasty exit. I’ll take a quick look around in case there’s anything useful in here.”

Li accesses a console and brings up the external camera on a screen. It confirms what they can hear through the door, the people on the other side are angrily banging away with various tools and metallic objects.

Searching through the Landing Bay, Kiara can't find much of use, there's a few crates of spare parts and four Titan surface suits.

What're you looking for? Let me know and roll a Luck and a Spot Hidden.

Unable to get to the garage, Kiara searches the helicopter bay for distress flares to use as a heat source.

[8] = 8
spot hidden 37 d%: [ 8 ] = 8

[43] = 43
luck 60 d%: [ 43 ] = 43

Searching through a crate filled with spare parts for the copter, Kiara finds a reinforced plastic box. Inside is a flare gun and two flares.

Having serendipitously found what she’s was looking for, Kiara glances at the monitor before trying to address Li.

“Looks like we’re leaving early. If you can take us up, I’ll radio the others when we’re in the air. Do we need to suit up first?”

On the monitor Kiara can see that the crowd have managed to open the door to the Garage and at least one of them is brandishing a cutting torch and seems to be trying to burn through the door to the Landing Bay.

Li starts tapping away on a console, 'I need to start the take-off sequence first.' Then she gestures out the window to the copter sitting on the Landing Pad amid the haze of the Titan atmosphere, 'You can try getting in without a suit but you'll freeze to death before you suffocate.'

You actually already put suits on. I'm going to assume you took them off again since you then went stomping around the station and messing about in the Medical Bay. No need to roll to get them on again.

Kiara quickly dons her suit.

“Start the procedure then,” she says. “And I’ll try to delay those guys.”

Using her pad, she attempts to access the fire suppression system, planning to douse the throng.

'Already started' sniffs Ling, slamming a button and then effortlessly slipping back into a surface suit. The copter outside starts to shift as rotors rotate into lift off configuration and begin to turn.

Kiara easily accesses the fire suppression system and starts to initiate it in the corridor outside.

I'd like an Know roll (EDU) or a Science (Planetary) roll to know how the fire suppression systems work on a extra-terran colony.

[59] = 59
Science planetary 65 d%: [ 59 ] = 59

Both the same at 65.

"Okay - just gimme a sec," Kiara replies.

The computer interface throws up a few warnings as Kiara fools it into registering a fire in the corridor. Without CENTRAL's controlling influence it is relatively simple to do.

Before she initialises the fire protection systems it occurs to her that water is going to be pretty scarce out here on Titan. The freezing, oxygen free atmosphere of Titan would be the perfect extinguishing medium, if she was designing a fire suppression system she'd just purge the air and flood the corridor with external atmospheric gases.

Kiara's finger hovers over the button, but stops.

"C'mon, let's go then," she says to Li, heading towards the chopper.

'If that keeps them out for the next few minutes we'll be able to get away' says Ling Li and she starts to purge the air from the Landing Bay. Freezing Titan atmospheric gases flow through the vents, creating a freezing orange fog that frosts the exposed surfaces.

She approaches the external door, waiting for the pressures to equalise before she can open it. The door panel counts down. Kiara picks up the box of flares and follows Li towards the door.

The countdown reaches zero and the door mechanism flashes green. Li presses it and the door starts to slide open.

-----

Kiara steps forward, the magnetised soles of her boots snapping to the metallic floor. She steps again and finds her foot twisting uncontrollably in the air as if the floor has moved beneath her. There is a squealing, grinding sound, and the external door slams shut, but doesn't fully seal, the frame seemingly warped and obstructing it from fully closing.

She gazes around her trying to make out what is happening, Li's voice crackles over the radio, 'Tremor!' In less than a minute the lighting blinks out. Eventually the dull green emergency lights kick in, casting strange elongated shadows through the hazy air.

From behind Kiara she hears a whining, motors straining against some impediment. Turning she can see a crack appearing in the interior door that leads into the corridor.

Kiara runs, or more likely lumbers, as fast as she can towards the chopper.

Kiara and Li thud along the floor to reach the external door. Li jabs the red flashing button over and over, but the door doesn't move, 'It won't open, it's stuck.'

Behind them, the interior door into the corridor whirs louder and glancing back Kiara sees the crack is now a few inches across and she can see something like a crowbar jammed in the gap.

“Oh crap…” Kiara’s fingers skitter feverishly over her datapad.

“Look for a manual override: there should be a way of opening the door in the event of a power failure. I’ll try to connect to the door controls directly.”

Kiara attempts to force an open command into the door controls, whilst bringing up the fire suppression menu, just in case…

It looks like the quake has deformed the doorframe, there's no automated way to open it that Kiara can see.

Li rips open a panel revealing a red handle and lots of warning signs. She pulls the handle and turns it. The red light on the flashing button turns to green but the door doesn't open or close. 'It's not opening.'

“Maybe we can force it open,” says Kiara, desperately looking around for something to lever the door open with.

[65] = 65
Luck 60 d%: [ 65 ] = 65

Nothing useful can be seen, alas.

Li slips the thick fingers of her suit gloves through the gap in the door and starts pulling - there's a tiny bit of movement but nothing significant.

Warnings appear on the door control panel, 'Landing Bay airlock functioning compromised. Titan atmospheric gases contaminating colony life support circulation.'

Glancing at the interior door, it is almost open far enough for someone to get through, and Kiara can see a number of people swarming around the gap, arms reaching through and grasping at empty air.

“Oh no… nononono, stay back!” Kiara yells at the crowd through her helmet, before redoubling her efforts to open the door.

Kiara puts all her strength into prying the door open, huffing encouragement to Li as she does so.

[30] = 30
STR 55 d%: [ 30 ] = 30

Between them, Li and Kiara manage to heave the doors open wide enough to squeeze out onto the Landing Pad. Once the doors separate more than a few inches an alarm begins to sound and the door control panel rapidly flashes red, 'Colony life support circulation compromised. Sealing breach in 5, 4, 3, 2...'.

By now the internal door has been wrenched apart wide enough for several people to have staggered through and they start running towards Li and Kiara, their breath producing billowing clouds of condensing water vapour. As they reach the centre of the Landing Bay they slow down and stop, looking puzzled, a slight wind seems to ruffle their clothes. Across their exposed skin and the surface of their overalls a delicate patina of white frost begins to form and their eyes look even wilder before their skin takes on a grey, icy complexion and they collapse to the floor, Kiara thinks she sees a hand shatter into tiny pink pieces.

'1, sealing breach.'

What looks like a heavy metal blast door drops down across the internal door, catching the limbs of several people, leaving them scattered and severed just inside the doorway. The blood rapidly congeals as the limbs freeze in the icy Titan wind blowing through the external door into the Landing Bay.

SAN check 0/1d4

[21] = 21
SAN 64 d%: [ 21 ] = 21

“Oh God, I’m sorry…” whispers Kiara, horrified by what’s happened but, worryingly, not extremely disturbed.

She turns to Li, her expression grim.

“What could we have done?” she asks rhetorically before nodding towards the chopper. “We’d better go.”

Li shrugs, her face impassive. Over the radio she says 'Someone breaches atmospheric integrity without a suit they freeze or the blast door gets them. That's on them.'



Approaching the copter that is lit up, it's rotors languidly turning in the take-off configuration, Li presses something on the side and a set of broad broad metal steps emerge from a hatch and unfold to form a ladder while the transparent side of the cockpit slides open. She carefully climbs the steps and then settles into one of the two seats. She starts jabbing at the control panel, 'Nothing's been damaged by the quake, take off in two minutes.'

Kiara follows her up the ladder even more carefully, the sensation of her magnetised boots sticking to the rungs is disconcerting. Eventually she is able to clamber into the cockpit and take her seat in an ungainly fashion.

After a minute the cockpit doors slide closed and the rotation of the rotors ramps up. After another thirty seconds Li places her hand over the control panel and the rotors spin even more fiercely, the copter vibrates and trembles slightly until it starts to lift up from the smooth white landing pad. Li slides her hand up the control panel and the copter soars into the atmosphere, and Kiara finds she can begin to get a sense of the layout of Barnard's Rest for the first time. There's the central hub with the maglev tubes radiating in several directions, from the hub project standard modular habitation units which presumably hold the maintenance and commercial sectors among others. Beyond is a field of huge methane storage tanks and then the Shuttle Bay with its large atmospheric dome.

Give me a Spot Hidden with a bonus die (extra 1d10 to replace the tens on your roll if better).

[65] = 65
Spot hidden 37 d%: [ 65 ] = 65

Bonus roll
[10] = 10
1d10: [ 10 ] = 10

Staring down at the Shuttle Bay, Kiara thinks it looks wrong somehow, like it's moving. And as she looks harder she sees a crack opening along the length. The sealable atmospheric dome is opening, gusts of condensing vapour billowing around the seam. It looks like there's going to be a shuttle launch.

That's 05 which I think is an extreme success

Kiara stares at the opening dome, her emotions conflicted.

First and foremost she is angry that she’s lost her only ticket off this godforsaken planet. Any lingering, if increasingly unrealistic, dreams of fulfilling her mission and retiring a rich woman (whilst simultaneously sticking it to her smug family) are dissolving.

Vying a close second is the feeling of relief. At least some people have managed to escape the nightmare. Barnard’s Rest will soon be nuked, but someone might live to tell the tale.

Finally: fear and guilt. Who knows how many infected people are onboard the shuttle? Should she; could she; somehow abort the launch remotely? Isolating mankind from possible infection but dooming the passengers in the process?

She gnaws her fingernails, wracking her brain for a solution to her conflict.

“Li, what’s the registration of the shuttle?” she asks.

Li is focusing on stabilising the copter, but in response to Kiara she casually says 'COD-Lambda-RD4A-8265, why?'

“If I can connect wirelessly to the comms system, while we’re still in range, I can broadcast a quarantine warning for the shuttle,” Kiara replies, jabbing once again at her datapad.

“They might be infected people on board. If they can be intercepted and isolated, it might stop the infection from spreading.”

'If you think anybody will hear, sure, give it a go. I don't want to hang around here much longer so make it quick.'

Li circles around the colony while the Landing Pad dome opens wide and the shuttle comes into view, the red glow of the launch motors indicating imminent lift off.

Sounds like a Computer Use

“I’ll be as quick as I can.”

[42] = 42
Computer use 65 d%: [ 42 ] = 42

Kiara is able to piggyback one of the sensor signals into Barnard's Rest and access the colony network. She sends an all channels message, 'Shuttle COD-Lambda-RD4A-8265 from Barnard's Rest is breaking Titan quarantine. There may be infected individuals on board. Intercept and isolate.'

She watches the shuttle engulfed in white smoke begin to lift up from the Shuttle Bay landing pad, hovering a hundred metres off the ground as the auxiliary thrusters tip it up perpendicular to the surface. The powerful first stage launch rockets ignite and their orange-red plumes jet out behind the shuttle which lurches into the sky and streaks up towards the edge of the atmosphere leaving behind a trail of white smoke.



Just as the shuttle approaches the edge of space, where the atmosphere thins, something small flashes into view, coming from beyond the atmosphere, and seems to impact the shuttle. Instantaneously there is a massive orange-red explosion and it shatters into a million pieces.

That's a SAN check for potentially causing the death of scores of people, 0/1d6.

[82] = 82
SAN 64 d%: [ 82 ] = 82

[3] = 3
Loss 1d6: [ 3 ] = 3

Kiara states open mouthed at the billowing explosion. She makes a small squeaking sound from the back of her throat.

“I-I was trying to save them…” she stammers.

Li flies the copter towards the black methane sea of Ligeia Mare, not looking back. 'Rather them than us.'

“You think we’re gonna last any longer than them?” Kiara snaps. “Even if we stop whatever’s happening at Waystation, we’re never gonna leave this god-forsaken planet!”

“Damn it I wish I could be as cool as you,” Kiara mutters, still distraught. “You’re not an android too are you?”

“Anyway, I’d better let the others know we’re heading out early, and tell them know the shuttle’s not an option.”

While Li flies the chopper, Kiara does just that.

Li silently flies the copter away from Barnard's Rest, above Pumping Station 1, and out over Ligeia Mare. The glassy surface enigmatic in its blackness. The flight is smooth, Li is clearly a skilled pilot.

Kiara tries to call the rover over the radio, but all she can hear is static. Occasionally the static goes silent, like someone is transmitting something, but she can't make anything out.

Try rolling a Listen

= 96
Listen 20 d%: [ 96 ] = 96

Maybe it's the noise of the chopper, or the fact that Kiara is still upset and distracted, but the scientist hears nothing discernable in the gaps between the static.

Soon they're flying out over the black liquid methane of Ligeia Mare. Li skates close to the surface but it seems safe as there are no waves. However, within the copter Kiara can hear a few creaks and thumps from outside through her suit sensors, probably just pressure shifts.

Trying the radio again just repeats the static, with occasional pauses like before. Li jabs the controls, 'Comms on the blink.'

“No surprises there; everything seems to be turning into shit,” Kiara grumbles.

“Let’s fly over there route. Maybe they’ll see us and know we’re on our way.”

'I've got fuel for about six hours of flying' says Li. 'That's three hours out, three hours back. I reckon it'll take two or three hours to get to Waystation, same to get back. Gives us somewhere between two and zero hours of spare fuel. I can try and fly low, use as little fuel as possible, and see if we can pick them up around Pumping Station 5 but it will be tight.'

Mechanically, Li will need to pass a Pilot (Planetary) roll to avoid running out of fuel (they won't crash, they'll just not have enough to get back from Waystation to Barnard's Rest), Kiara will need to pass Luck for the rover to be near Pumping Station 5, and Li or Kiara (both can roll) will need to pass one of a regular Navigate or a hard Spot Hidden test to detect them. FYI Li has Pilot (Planetary) 60% and Navigate 50%

Unfortunately, things don’t go too well in the piloting and spotting department, though, as luck would have it, the chopper does pass over the transporter near pumping station 5.

At Kiara's urging, Ling Li reluctantly turns the copter away from Waystation, crossing towards the near shore of Ligeia Mare and Pumping Station 5.

Li continues to fly low, just above the smooth liquid methane. As Kiara sits there watching the flat black surface stretching ahead she notices something odd, initially it is hard to process what she is seeing but eventually she realises that she can see odd disturbances in the surface of the sea. Difficult to fully resolve due to the blackness of the methane but highlighted when the bright lights of the copter shine on the nearest parts. They look like ripples, not ripples from the downthrust of the copter but running perpendicular to their flight. Like waves. And the more Kiara looks the taller they become, great linear deformations of the liquid running as far as the eye can see, waves of several feet in height above the surface.

Noticing Kiara's preoccupation Li says 'I didn't think there were supposed to be waves in Ligeia Mare, I'll have to climb a bit to be safe. We should be coming to Pumping Station 5 soon.'

In another twenty minutes the copter reaches the flat shoreline where the Pumping Station sits between the black sea and the rocky wastes beyond. Tendrils of dark tubing snake out of the liquid and up to the large cylindrical silver pumping apparatus mounted on a metallic platform of railings, walkways, and grating panels. Beside that is the dome shaped hub station, maglev tunnels and metal pipework meandering along the shore line back towards Barnard's Rest.

'I estimate the rover is somewhere near here based on their most likely speed and direction' says Li. 'I will start a standard surface search sweep.' She begins to fly the copter around the Pumping Station in increasing circles, Kiara realises it is a spiral pattern. After fifteen minutes of ever widening circles they are still unable to see the rover.

'Fuel is getting low' says Li, tapping the control panel with a frown just visible through her suit helmet. 'I'm not confident we have enough to get to Waystation from here and then return to Barnard's Rest. We will need to refuel at Waystation but if we do that we will have enough fuel now to make a few more sweeps to look for the rover.'

She prods the control panel a few times, 'And I think we're in the right place, I'm picking up a transponder.'

So the successful Luck roll means that the rover is somewhere around here. The failed Pilot means you don't have enough fuel for the return trip. The failed Navigate and Spot Hidden means you haven't found the rover yet. Since you now have fuel to spare because you will have to refuel at Waystation anyway you can attempt Navigate/Hard Spot Hidden again, or do something else

[57] = 57
Kiara's spot hidden 37 d%: [ 57 ] = 57

[92] = 92
Li's navigate 50 d%: [ 92 ] = 92

Still rattled by the exploding shuttle, and not a little concerned by the strange waves on the lake, Kiara is still unable to locate the transporter.

"Let's press on to Waystation - I don't think we have much of an alternative," she suggests.

The radio crackles again, but this time there's definitely something there. Li turns it up.

'Hello, hello, this is Surface Rover BR-163, come in Copter BR-054, Kiara is that you?'

“Yes it’s me,” Kiara replies with some relief. “We had to leave early before the mob got to us; the prospect of impending doom seems to have driven everyone crazy.”

“I guess they tried to escape in the shuttle - infection or no infection,” her voice cracks a little. “I couldn’t let that infection spread. I thought if I transmitted a quarantine request, they’d at least stand a chance…”

“The bastards blew them out of the sky!”

'It could have been us,' says another voice, it sounds like Sam. 'Richter probably won't let any of us off Titan, even if we're able to deal with the problem.'

Then a third voice, unmistakable French accent. 'They’ve got a lot of money invested in this moon; if we can solve the problem hopefully Richter Dynamics will reopen the colony. Pity Steinmann’s dead, he would have found a bureaucratic argument out of here. We could always blame the whole problem on him.'

“Not if they’re listening in on our comms,” says Kiara wryly.

“Regardless, it looks like we’re gonna get to Waystation earlier than planned. Anything you want us to do while we await your arrival?”

'You could survey the area from above before you land, if you have the fuel to spare,' says Sam. 'Then you could let us know what to expect.'

'Try to stay away from any contamination while you're waiting for us.' That flat, dispassionate voice could only be Jojo. 'This alien life seems to prey on individuals or people separated and it affects your mind before you know you're infected. Nonetheless, try to be safe.'

“We’ll see what we can do,” Kiara replies.

She looks at Li.

“Reckon we’ve enough fuel to hover around Waystation before we land?”

Before she can answer, a thought strikes Kiara and she speaks into the radio again.

“Hey, did you encounter those weird waves over the lake? That was definitely not right…”

Li nods, 'We can't make it back on this tank now, so we've got spare fuel when we get to Waystation.'

As Kiara gets back on the radio and asks her question, 'Hey, did you encounter those weird waves over the lake? That was definitely not right…' the radio crackles and then goes quiet, leaving the background hissing noise.

Well, not just hissing, there is something else there, quiet, barely perceptible, a grating sound, like sheets of metal grinding together, but also, somehow, like speech. When Kiara focuses on it she thinks she can make out a single word, it says 'Come'.

“We’ll that’s not at all sinister…” mutters Kiara meaningfully as she fruitlessly twiddles with the radio.

“C’mon then, let’s circle around Waystation and hope this somehow goes without a hitch.”

'Still a good while until we get to Waystation' says Li, wheeling the copter around and flying back out over the black surface of the methane sea. The strange ripples seem to have subsided and the surface is smooth and flat. Li keeps low over the black surface but not too far out this time so the orange crenulated shoreline remains in view.

They sit in silence as the featureless terrain scrolls by the broad windows of the copter, Li's attention divided between the view ahead through the window and the control panel. Kiara gazing out the window. She thinks she catches a glimpse of the sun beaming through a break in the orange haze.

After twenty minutes or so Kiara begins to find herself feeling uncomfortably warm in the stuffy surface suit. Her breath condensing on the inside of the helmet visor. The heat feels strange, almost like the warmth of the sun on her skin.

Then she sees those ripples again. Not as pronounced but there on the surface. Radiating towards the rocky shore.

Li's voice interrupts her thoughts, 'Something up ahead, in the sea.'



The copter flies over what look like islands in the black liquid sea. Orange islands protruding from the surface, islands with what looks like greenery on them.

Roll SAN 0/1d4 for seeing greenery on the freezing and barren surface of Titan

[46] = 46
SAN 61 d%: [ 46 ] = 46

“What the hell?” Kiara exclaims, eyes wide at the supposedly impossible flora blooming beneath them.

“Can you see that? How the-?”

Too stunned to finish her question, she fumbles for her datapad and attempts to record and interpret the phenomenon.

[4] = 4
Science planetary 65 d%: [ 4 ] = 4

'Yeah, I can see it. But don't ask me what it is' shrugs Li. 'I just do the flying. You do the science.'

Kiara knows that there is simply no way for terrestrial-type organic life to form on Titan. There's been rumours about islands condensing out of the methane lakes but nothing like this. They look like they're made of grey sand or sediment mixed with orange-brown soil, the glassy black liquid lapping against an almost terrestrial landscape. Great ferns emerge from the dark rippling methane, patches of luxuriant grasses surrounded by tall trees. The green-hues completely alien to Titan with its monotonous orange from ground to sky.

Although, now that she looks, the atmosphere seems clearer, less hazy, she can even make out the yellow sun, it looks bright, much brighter than it has any right to be. In her sweltering suit the sensation of the sun on her skin is overwhelming.

Kiara gets Li to fly down a little lower. There's something not quite right about those plants, they're more angular than terrestrial flora maybe, but then who knows what strange shapes trees would form if they could grow in such an extreme environment.

As Kiara stares closer at the impossible trees, she becomes sure, they are definitely wrong. Not just wrong in being here on Titan. But wrong for trees. Their limbs aren't smooth and organic but angular, iridescent. The leaves look more like incrustations of small emerald-like crystals.

[60] = 60
Spot hidden 37 d%: [ 60 ] = 60

Despite her so-called ‘brilliance’, Kiara is too bewildered to make any meaningful observations about the phenomenon.

Feeling increasingly uncomfortable in the heat, she shakes her head in a futile attempt to clear the sweat from her face.

“Let’s keep going; I don’t think landing to take a closer look will be good for our survival prospects.”