Play@YSDC

Day 2
12th March 2189
15:38 Earth Central European Time
Plains of Titan

Once they're fully suited up they seal the access door to the colony and release the oxygenated air from the garage to be replaced by the thick, orange-tinted mixture of nitrogen and methane that serves as the atomosphere of Titan. The pressure is greater than Earth standard and it feels like walking through water. With so little gravity only the weighted boots are drawn to the ground, resulting in an unstable and ungainly progress across the metallic floor.

With the pressure equalised the translucent plastic door that comprises the whole end wall of the Garage slides open, giving direct access to the metallic loading platform beside the hulking surface rover. With their magnetic boots they're able to keep a firm purchase on the platform and start to load the rover with some difficulty.

It takes Moses and Isabella a good fifteen minutes to get the rover fully prepared and its systems initialised. Jojo finds a rudimentary medical pod and loads it into the hold, easily manipulating the bulky piece of equipment with his enhanced cybernetic strength in the limited gravitational pull of the moon. Nicole loads a couple of spare surface suits, some oxygen tanks, spare fuel tanks for the cutting torches, a few lengths of rope, and some cable ties.

Starting up the rover's methane power unit the engine belches out smoke as the vehicle shakes and judders to life. Slowly at first and then more rapidly it rumbles out, crunching through the methane snow. The mountains and sea are not visible through the hazy orange fog, nothing but miles and miles of methane snow stretch in all directions, the smooth transparent reinforced plastic tunnels of the maglev train network flanked with metal pipework providing the only indication of direction.

Moses and Isabella sit at the front of the rover cabin, controlling the unweildy vehicle with a myriad of dials, handles, joysticks, and buttons. Nicole, Jojo, and Sam sit behind them, gazing out of the large windows into the haze. Everyone remains in their surface suits, no room to remove them inside the cabin, but they connect the suits directly to the rover's oxygen supply.

Moses and Isabella manage to maintain a steady pace across the orange surface but occasionally they strike a hidden rocky outcrop and the rover seems to lift dangerously from the surface and careen uncontrollably through Titan's atmosphere, twisting disconcertingly, but before it can fully turn over and lose any semblance of control, the weak gravity eventually brings it back down to the flat surface again.

The initial talk fades to silence as minutes turn into hours, the same endless orange methane dunes filling the viewing windows. Isabella warns they are approaching deep canyons filled with methane and they are forced to turn away from Ligeia Mare, losing sight of the maglev tunnels that gave the only sense of what direction anything lay.

Inside the suits it begins to become overly warm and sweaty, despite the homeostatic controls. Crammed into the cabin, close together yet separated by the absolute physical barrier of the surface suits, it starts to feel oppressive. Like the surface of endless methane snow is pressing down on each and every one of them, the thick atmosphere slowly choking them. The relentless hum of the engine the only sound apart from the occasional barked communication between Isabella and Moses who seem to be tolerating each other at best. Now and again there is a flash of something, movement or just a thicker patch of methane fog, but it just adds to the feeling of oppression, like there is someone or something out there, watching them from a distance. Occasionally the radio clicks, the static goes silent, like someone is transmitting, but nobody speaks.

Anyone looking out the window roll a hard Spot Hidden

So weapons - this is my understanding:
Nicole - Pistol, only 2 rounds left in the magazine and no further magazines on her, shotgun, stun baton
Jojo - Cutting torch (9 charges), stun baton
Moses - Incinerator (1 shot left), shotgun, stun baton
Isabella - Shotgun, stun baton
Sam - Incinerator (2 shots), cutting torch (8 charges), shotgun, stun baton

The shotguns are all loaded with 5 shells. There are loads of spare shotgun shells (riot rounds only) - seven boxes of 20 shells. The cutting torches have ten charges each then the tank needs to be changed.

Any other equipment you might later want but aren't sure if it is loaded then that sounds like a luck roll.

pHdd40%-HdLLd% LLpHdd45%HdLLd%

Sam can't see anything but methane out the window.

Spot Hidden roll (55% / 2 = 27.5% skill) looking out the window:
d%

Spot Hidden 50 (Hard = 25)
1d100

Jojo is sitting in the middle and going through his diagnostic routines to isolate bad sectors and isn't paying attention to what is going on around him.

Nicole stares out at the depressing landscape, looking for anything that might liven up the scene.

Spot hidden 60 roll:32

Sorry- I’m not used to 7th Ed rules. I’ll spend 2 luck please.

Nicole leans over Moses shoulder and points at a screen,
“What’s that light on the scanner mean?”

'Shit!' shouts Moses as he slams on the brakes and turns the wheel hard. The rover tips up onto one side precariously, before settling back onto the surface. He taps the scanner, 'There's something out there. We'd have hit it if you hadn't noticed it on the scanner. It's small, smaller than a vehicle. But it's not moving.' He points out the window into the obscuring haze. There's something up ahead, difficult to make out, it looks like a figure.

"Can we get closer to it for a better look without hitting it, now that we know it's there?" suggests Sam.

Jojo looks up and braces himself as the rover tips precariously.

"Please watch out! We need to get there in once piece."

Isabella turns to Jojo, 'Thanks for the advice, next time we'll just plough into whatever it is.' Moses gives her a weak smile.

Sliding the gears down Moses gently depresses the throttle and the rover creaks and groans, very slowly inching across the snow towards the figure. Out of the haze the shape begins to resolve itself, the bulky outline of a surface suit standing in the snow. Visor turned away from them, looking out into the endless orange wastes.

"Some of us will need to get out and take a closer look," says Sam.

As they stare out the window at the immobile figure the radio splutters into life.

'Huh, hello. This is Science Officer Keira Khan. I have conducted some research on the alien organism. I am transmitting my files on all data frequencies.'

Checking the files they show that Kiara has developed some of Jojo's research to try to find any vulnerability or way to reverse the infection. In short, it finds that visible and ultraviolet light seems to accelerate the extrusion of the filamentous green mold from the superficial infected cells and ultimately this destroys them. Heating the cells speeds this up but also accelerates the spread of the infection to other cells. Cold slows down or even stops the infection or any of the other 'alien' biological processes like the green mold.

Kiara accessed Jojo's memory dump to obtain details of the research he had already performed.

Macroscopically the cells from Montrose were unremarkable but at higher magnification they looked very odd indeed. Some, labelled as skin and subcutaneous tissue, reminded her of Earth grasses, where silica phytoliths are deposited within the cell body, making it tough and inflexible. Other cells, labelled as internal and subcutaneous tissues, were reminiscent of algal diatoms, where the cell wall itself is made of silica. She reports that Jojo thought this explained 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 confirmed this. They extrude inorganic material when exposed to high intensity visible and ultraviolet electromagnetic spectrums. Jojo noted that this extruded inorganic material looked very much like the green powdery substance with a slightly filamentous surface they found on the skin of Montrose's 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 compared Montrose's DNA record to that extracted from the cells and found no evidence of abnormal sequences or methylation. His conclusion was that this was an extraterrestrial pathogen with a biology that is not purely carbon-based.

Initially Kiara followed the obvious path of bombarding the cells with various wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. The ultraviolet spectrum in particular seemed to cause the cells to extrude the filamentous material that comprises the green mold and eventually the cells ruptured and were destroyed. UV didn't affect the diatom-like deeper cell samples.

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

Following this line of thought she tried lowering the temperature and found that the transformed cells were highly resistant to low temperatures with none of the cell wall damage usually seen when cytoplasm freezes. But she also noted that at very low temperatures the cellular transformation completely stopped and when she bombarded the grass-like cells with UV nothing happened. It appeared that freezing temperatures arrested the alien pathogen, but didn't destroy it, since heating the cells back up resumed the inevitable spread of the infection.

"Thanks, that will prove helpful," replies Sam. "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.

“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.”

“That’s a whole lot of data. What can we take from it to help us?”
Nicole gets up and prepares to exit the rover.
“I’ll go and you stand by to pull me back in. If it’s safe enough we”ll risk another person if we need to. I’m guessing the suit is empty. Or, at least, the occupant is long gone.
Maintain radio contact.” She nods.

"Will do,"says Sam, gripping the rope. "Be careful."

Jojo frowns at Isabella. "Running into an obstruction is the opposite of what I just said."

Then with Kiara's transmission, he nods in approval. "I'm glad she was able to do some more tests while waiting. Good use of time!"

Nicole walks very slowly across the methane snow, it crunches under her feet. She notices that there are no footprints around the figure despite looking back to see that she is leaving clear indentations in the orange snow. She grips her pistol tightly in her hand, it is awkward in the thick gloves of the surface suit. The sensation of walking out in the atmosphere of Titan is no less disconcerting than it was back at the rover garage, worse even without the metal walkway for the magnetic boots to adhere to. She imagines it is what walking along the bottom of a swimming pool would feel like.

All the while Nicole is walking the figure doesn't move. When she arrives behind it she places her hand on the shoulder and gives it a nudge.

Nothing.

She circles around the suit as best she can to get a look inside. As she suspected the suit is empty. The transparent visor is smashed with a gaping hole in the centre but no blood or other signs of injury. The radio does that odd thing again, where the static goes quiet as if someone is transmitting something, transmitting silence.

“There’s no one in it... The visor is smashed open... Did you notice the radio just then?... As if someone just pushed the mute button.”

Nicole’s voice comes back muffled and interspersed with slightly nervous, heavy breathing.

'No transmissions over the radio since Kiara' says Moses, but anyone inside the cabin can see him exchange a glance with Isabella. 'If there's no one in it let's just get going, we still have a lot of ground to cover and hours to go.' His voice sounds a little higher than usual and he's speaking more rapidly.

"Yeah, let's get moving as soon as Nicole gets back," says Sam.

“Roger that....We’ll leave the suit...might be contaminated...I’m coming back.”
Nicole takes one last look at the suit and the surrounding area and then turns to come back.

Spot hidden 60 roll: 01!

Just before she starts back towards the surface rover, Nicole notices something poking out the left hand of the suit. Moving close enough to look but without touching she can just about make out something small and colourful held between thumb and forefinger and resting on the glove. It seems incongruous out here in the orange snow, a spray of tiny yellow flowers, protruding in dense clusters from a short piece of stem. The flowers themselves frosted by Titan's freezing atmosphere.

“Hols on...something odd...” Nicole will try to pry the flowers away from the suit.

As soon as her gloved fingers touch the flower it shatters into hundreds of frozen shards and the little pieces gently float down to settle on top of the methane snow.

“Huh.”
Nicole retraces her steps and climbs back into the truck to sit with the others.
“An empty suit holding a posie in a barren landscape. Go figure.”

"That is weird," says Sam. "What could have happened to its former occupant? Were there any tracks nearby?"

Isabella slaps Nicole on the back of her surface suit. 'Maybe better off not knowing, eh?'

Moses looks restless, 'Let's just go, we've got a lot of ground to cover.'

The radio clicks on in silence again.

OOC:   There were no footprints

Perhaps the radio wasn't completely silent, was that a faint sound? Almost like a whisper.

"Yeah, let's keep going," says Sam. "Did you hear that? It sounded almost like someone whispering on the radio just now."

Sorry, I posted a long report of the suit and the radio yesterday but it obviously didn’t go live.

“I heard that blip on the radio too. Any chance we can amplify it next time it happens?” Nicole says, sitting back down.

"I'll try," says Sam. "It only happened briefly, though."

"Let's keep going." Jojo says. "We are on a countdown timer yet."

Moses puts the rover back into gear and starts back into the rust-coloured mist. The vehicle rumbles along, outside there's occasional creaking, thumping sounds, probably just pressure shifts. The landscape is barren, without any distinguishing features, and it is hard to resolve anything, the relentless fog blurring the vision. Sam and Nicole can feel fatigue starting to weigh heavy on their eyelids but Jojo continues to sit dispassionately staring out the window. Moses and Isabella say nothing.

There's a dark shape ahead, just to the right. It is hard to make out exactly what it is but it is small, compact, almost organic. Then it seems to move, like it is looking up, looking at the rover. Then the shadowy shape flows and expands, stretching out wings. It turns and lifts off into the air, disappearing in the orange haze. If you didn't know any better you'd say it was a bird.

OOC:   Roll Sanity 0/1

The radio crackles again.

Sam tries to amplify the signal and is too busy to see anything.

Spot Hidden roll (55% / 2 = 27.5% skill) looking out the window:
d%

Nicole has her eyes closed in a power nap but wakes up when she hears the radio crackle.

Spot hidden, 60 roll:69

Spot Hidden 50
1d100

Jojo watches the bland terrain pass by outside seeing nothing outside of what he would expect.

Out the window there's a movement, a small shadow that seems to be on the ground ahead and then flits up into the orange sky. Probably just a trick of the light.

As the radio crackles Sam hits the record button on the communication equipment. Then plays it back...

Give me a Computer Use roll

Sam does a decent job.

Computer Use roll (55% skill) trying to get the signal:
d%

Playing back the recording just repeats the silent pause in the static. Sam tries to amplify the signal, initially all she gets is noise and she fiddles about with the gain and a few deconvolution algorithms, trying to sharpen the audio. Eventually she's done the best she can and plays it for everyone.

The audio quality is very poor but through the hissing and popping she's introduced through her attempts to clarify the signal, there is something there, quiet, barely perceptible, and grating, but definitely speech, it says a single word, 'Come'.

The audio quality is very poor. Sam has introduced harsh hissing and popping sounds in her attempt to clarify the signal. There's nothing there they can make out.

'Well I can't hear anything' says Isabella.

"I heard the word 'come,'" says Sam. "I could try to trace the signal and see where it originates, but I have a feeling I already know: Waystation."

Jojo shrugs. "It just sounds like static to me. Maybe there's some natural background emission going on somewhere."

“At least the signal is Human then. I was beginning to imagine otherwise.” Nicole says to Sam.
“Let’s keep going.”

"Of course, the human may be infected," says Sam, "but, yeah, let's keep moving."

The rover rolls on in silence. After a while Moses says 'We've cleared the canyons, I'm turning back towards Ligeia Mare, we should come near to Pumping Station 5 eventually.'

They settle back into the monotony. The rover gently crunching through the methane snow, nothing visible through the windows but the featureless surface of Titan obscured by hazy orange atmosphere. Time passes, minutes, tens of minutes, hours.

-----

Up ahead, it looks like something is resolving through the haze, although Moses and Isabella are showing no sign of noticing it. Like a figure, at the very edge of the orange mist, at the horizon, walking away from the rover...

A shudder runs through the rover, all of a sudden the view up ahead looks odd, the horizon seems to be at an angle, the sensation of the rover's wheels in the snow has stopped. Then the rover thuds back into the ground, bouncing, shuddering. Grinding to a halt. Just ahead of the rover the methane snow starts to move again, a great rend appearing, a crevasse in the rock underlying the powdery snow. Wider, and deeper, it spreads out as far as can be seen, the rover slowly tipping over the edge, hanging precariously. Black liquid rushes into the fissure, liquid methane from the methane sea. Aftershocks shake the rover again.

Spot Hidden (40% & 45%): 1d100+1d100 47 + 95

"I think I see someone out there," says Sam, "walking away from the rover!"

Spot Hidden roll (55% skill) in the rover:
d%

"Whoever it is doesn't look to be wearing a suit," says Sam. "Could be another android."

Spot Hidden 50
1d100

"I don't see anything. Are you sure you're not hallucinating?" Jojo turns towards Sam. "I don't believe there are any other androids on the surface."

“Never mind the apparitions! Nobody move! We’re about to tip into who knows where. Moses, can you reverse us onto safe ground?” Nicole shouts.

Spot hidden 60 roll:75

“

Looking increasingly panicked, Moses revs the engine and the rover rocks back and forth. He stops and the front of the rover pitches even further forward. 'I uh, uh, I don't know what to do, it's not budging, uh, we're slipping, we're slipping!'

Isabella is desperately jabbing at various consoles and instrument panels, 'Quake's fractured the crust, flooded with liquid methane. No way of knowing how far down it goes. I can plot us a path round it but we need to avoid slipping down it first.'

"Everyone carefully move toward the back of the rover," says Sam, doing so herself. Her knowledge of engineering and physics comes in useful here. "We need more weight back there to provide enough leverage to keep us from slipping further."

"Very well." Jojo says as he moves to the back of the rover also.

Nicole takes a deep breath to stay calm and then starts shifting back slowly.
“If we do go, press the mayday button if there is one.” She says to Isabella.

Jojo, Sam, and Nicole edge back, out of the rover cockpit and into the cargo hold. Isabella then leaves her seat and joins them. When they're all out of the way Moses gently engages the engine and the rover begins to rock slightly as the wheels dig into the methane snow on the edge of the crevasse.

The rover very slowly inches back, 'I think we're okay' shouts Moses.

-----

Moses manages to back away from the fissure and Isabella rejoins him in the front. She plots a course around the black methane filled crack. The aftershocks have ceased. Rolling along the surface the rover continues on its interminable journey. Eventually Moses says that they're approaching Pumping Station 5.

Soon the dome shaped hub station comes into view, emerging from the orange mist. Beside it the railings and walkways of the pumping platform with its large cylindrical silver pumping apparatus disappearing into the black methane sea with its tubing radiating out like thin fingers to grasp the dark liquid. Plastic maglev tunnels and metal pipework indicate the direction back to Barnard's Rest.

"Let's call Kiara and let her know we can see our destination," says Sam. "We can give her our ETA so she'll know when to leave."

“We’d better find her a decent landing zone while we’re waiting. Good driving by the way, Moses.” Nicole is looking forward to getting out of the Rover.

"We're still quite a ways off from Waystation," says Sam, "so it's much too soon for her to leave, but we should still update her on what we've encountered."

“Half way! We’d better keep going then.” She uses the radio to contact Kiara.
“Kiara, Kiara, come in, over?”

Nicole activates the planetary radio but all she hears is static. Isabella sees her struggling and tries to activate the radio from her control panel. 'Radio's down, still seems to be broadcasting but I can't get Kiara and Li, maybe the tremor took down the relay at Barnard's Rest?'

"That's possible," says Sam. "Hopefully she'll fly out to meet us at the scheduled time if she doesn't hear from us."

'Transmission incoming' says Isabella. She plays it over the suit intercoms. 'Shuttle COD-Lambda-RD4A-8265 from Barnard's Rest is breaking Titan quarantine. There may be infected individuals on board. Intercept and isolate.'

Looking back in the direction of the colony, in the far distance and just visible through the thick orange mist, the orange-red plumes of a shuttle first stage launch rocket can be seen. The tiny shape of a shuttle 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.

"I guess we're not leaving Titan," says Sam.

"That does not bode well." Jojo says to the others.

“Merde, the bastards!” Nicole exclaims uncharacteristicly. Aghast, she watches the fallout from the explosion.
“Two questions: who was in that shuttle, actually three questions, why were they trying to leave and... who blew them up? I mean, I know it sounded like Richter Dynamics but was it?”
She realises she’s beginning to sound paranoid.

Isabella's hands dance across the control panel. 'Well what I can tell you is that shuttle COD-Lambda-RD4A-whatnot is the one we arrived in. I don't know who was on it or where they were going but that transmission originated from Barnard's Rest and the personal identifier attached is one Science Officer Kiara Khan.'

Waiting until she has finished, Moses then says 'I'm also picking up a transponder nearby, I can't get a fix but it looks like one the colony copters.'

"Could Kiara have sent the transmission from the chopper?" asks Sam, trying to trace its origin. "I'm hoping that's her on the way to join us."

“I hope she’s okay. If it is her, she’ll catch us up. Let’s keep going.” Nicole worries about the circumstances necessitating blowing a shuttle up but there’s nothing they can do about it now.

"Yeah, that copter may not have enough fuel to keep hovering," says Sam. "If it's going to Waystation, it'll get there well ahead of us,"

"That would be unfortunate as that is not how we planned it." Jojo retorts. "But then again, nothing has gone according to plan."

“Maybe Kiara decided she couldn’t stay any longer; I can’t imagine Bernard’s Rest is particularly present at the moment.” Nicole replies.

"I guess not," says Sam. "Let's try to radio the copter and find out what happened."

Isabella activates the control panel, 'I'm transmitting on the shortwave radio, if the relay at Barnard's Rest isn't working we might be able to talk to them on this if they're within a few kilometres. I'll route it through the rover comms so you can all access the channel through your suits.'

Everyone hears Isabella broadcasting over the channel, 'Hello, hello, this is Surface Rover BR-163, come in Copter BR-054, Kiara is that you?'

'Yes it’s me.'

Crackle

'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.'

Silence

'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 Sam. "Richter probably won't let any of us off Titan, even if we're able to deal with the problem."

“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.”
She brightens,
“We could always blame the whole problem on him.”

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

"Try to stay away from any contamination while you're waiting for us." Jojo advises. "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.

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

Crackle

There is no further message, just the background hissing noise.

Sam inspects the radio, trying to determine if it has malfunctioned or if there is some other explanation as to why they lost the signal.

The radio looks fine.

"It would almost appear as if something out here doesn't want us to communicate."

"I think that's exactly the case," says Sam. "There's nothing for it but to keep going."

“Something under the lake?” Nicole hazards.
“Come on, Moses put your foot down; let’s get to Waystation ASAP.”

'I'm going as fast as I can!' grumbles Moses as he swings the rover away from the Pumping Station and the shoreline, heading inland to circumvent a black methane inlet that reaches deep into the crenulated orange landscape. The sharp ridge of volcanic mountains just visible in the distance, through the haze, the dull sun shining through, perhaps a little brighter than they have seen it before.

They settle back in to an uncomfortable silence. Moses and Isabella busy at the controls, sitting at the front of the rover's cab. The others further back, watching the featureless terrain roll by. Another hour passes. The stuffiness of the surface suits begins to wear on them again, oppressive heat despite the icy temperatures outside the rover. Breath condenses on the inside of the helmet visors. The heat feels strange, less humid, almost like the warmth of the sun on the skin.

Interrupting the silent reverie Isabella's voice comes husky over the suit radios. 'Something up ahead, transponder signal, colony rover.' Moses slows the rover down and gradually, out of the haze, the massive form of a surface rover emerges.

On a fairly flat stretch of orange methane snow the surface rover is parked, or abandoned. It is about twenty metres from the enigmatic black waters of the inlet but otherwise there's nothing else visible around it as far as the eye can see.

The surface rover is seemingly parked, or abandoned. But that's not what catches the eye. The rover seems to be parked on top of a luxuriant bed of green grass, flattened where the rover's wheels have been. There are trees around it, marching down from the surrounding orange hills and arrayed about the patch of grass like a crowd of tall figures. The grass runs the twenty metres or so down to the narrow inlet, where clear blue water sparkles in the sunlight. Large ferns protruding from the water's surface.

OOC:   Roll SAN 1/1d6 for seeing the inexplicable sight of grass, tress, and water on the inhospitable, subzero surface of Titan

"Okay, that's impossible," says Sam, shaking her head to clear it. "They don't have this level of terraforming on Mars, let alone Titan."

POW roll (65% stat) seeing the rover:
d%
Sanity roll (current level 57) seeing the rover's surroundings:
d%
Sanity loss:
1d6

Power 75
1d100

"That's interesting." Jojo remarks. "I wonder how it got out here and if anyone is still alive within."

"They don't have this level of terraforming on Mars, let alone Titan."

"Terraforming? What are you talking about? What exactly do you see out there?"

"You can't see the greenery?" asks Sam. "I see a large bed of grass where the rover is parked, and there are trees and an inlet nearby. I suppose what I'm seeing must be a hallucination. Your visual sensors must be more reliable than my eyes."

Pow roll: 95 fail. San roll: 20 pass, san loss:1

“No, I agree with you, Sam; trees, grass, it’s beautiful. Strange but beautiful. Could be a mirage though .” Nicole gazes out of the window.

"We're on Titan! There's no green grass and trees out there. Just the same orange snow and the methane lake. Jojo says.

Can I do a medical check to see if they are under the influence?

“Two against one.” Nicole mutters under her breath. “Hey, Moses and Isabella, what do you see out there?” She calls forward.

Jojo will pull out his portable medical scanner and moves over to Sam and does a quick scan.

Medicine 80
1d100

'What are you grumbling about back there?' shouts Isabella. 'Are we going to take a look at this thing or what?' Moses mutters something, 'It's beautiful.'

Power 60%: 1d100 86. Sanity 60%: 1d100 99. Power 45%: 1d100 18

Jojo can't detect any intoxicants, physical illness, or signs of infection in Sam. He has to admit that, even as an essentially infallible AH-3000 android, psychiatry has never been his best medical speciality, but it is quite clear to him that Sam, and presumably Nicole, are both experiencing a bout of space madness. He will have to report this to Richter Dynamic when this is all over.

This is clearly no hallucination. Sam can see the grass and the trees as clearly as she can see the interior of the rover. The android was badly damaged, and infected by that alien organism. He seems to be malfunctioning. She will need to keep a close eye on him.

It just looks so real. Nicole can see the grass and the trees as clearly as she can see the interior of the rover. Yet, the android can't see it, maybe, maybe. Well, she did get quite a scare when she saw Montrose kill himself. Blacked out for a bit. Could this be a hallucination? But then what explains Sam's reaction, a mass hallucination?

"Then it must be real," says Sam. "We need to take a closer look."

“Can you scan yourself, Jojo? All us humans can see it, Ibthink we should take a closer look. It reminds me of home.” She says wistfully

Moses very slowly rolls towards the rover. 'Close enough Moses. Let's take a look on foot' says Isabella and she hefts the bulky surface suit out of her chair to exit the cabin. 'Come on then.'

As Isabella climbs down the ladder in an ungainly fashion, Moses just sits there staring.

The rover itself looks just like the one they have been riding in. Perhaps a bit more frosted up on the exterior but definitely so inside, the polycarbonate windows completely obscured by a patina of natural fern-shaped frost patterns.

The rover itself looks just like the one they have been riding in. There's no one visible inside the cab. Surrounding it are the impossible trees, but up closer they look 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.

The rover itself looks just like the one they have been riding in. There's no one visible inside the cab. Surrounding it are beautiful trees, sap-green leaves, silky-soft looking. Brown bark, flaking and peeling in places. The sun streams through the trees, dappling the luxurient grass which runs down towards clean white sand plunging into clear blue water. And Sam sees something flitting between the trees, a bird perhaps. Walking among the trees, towards the rover, she can feel the warm sun on her skin. There's a smell, an earthy aroma with an undertone of sweetness. Under her feet she can feel the grass. And up ahead, is that someone running through the trees, without a suit on?

"Is that a bird?" asks Sam, glancing up at the trees. Then she points in one direction at ground level. "That looks like a person - without a suit!"

“I, er, don’t think you should go out, Isabella. Look, can you see it’s all crystally- like the thing that attacked Jojo.” Nicole says, concerned that it’s some sort of trap.
“Where’s the person, Sam? Are you sure it’s human and not something alien?” Nicole tries to see the person too, whilst clambering forward to check on Moses.

"Over there," says Sam. "I don't know what exactly it is, but it looks vaguely humanoid. It's hard to tell from so far away. That's why we need to get closer."

“I don’t know. It looks like a trap and that rover has already sprung it once. Weapons out and be prepared for anything. Moses are you with us?” Nicole shakes Moses on the shoulder.

"You're right," says Sam, keeping her weapons ready as she prepares to venture outside.

At Nicole's warning, Isabella reaches back into the cab and grabs a shotgun. She jumps from the top step of the ladder and lands gently in the orange snow. After a few shakes Moses eventually grunts something and pulls himself to his feet to follow Isabella out of the cab. He doesn't bring any weapon.

Isabella and Moses approach the rover while Sam walks past it down the slight incline towards the inlet projecting from the body of Ligeia Mare.

Isabella raps her shotgun on the rover's hull, 'Don't think anyone's in.'

Moses winds from side to side, looking up into the air and at the ground. 'It, it's amazing.' He crouches down and lifts a handful of methane snow, staring at it. 'So warm, I can feel it on my skin. The air, it's clear. And the trees. They must be making the oxygen.' He places the gloved hands of his surface suit on either side of his helmet and starts to twist it.

Nicole can't see any sign of this figure amongst the strange crystalline trees but she starting to lose sight of Sam as she disappears amongst the trunks and branches.

Walking through the trees, Sam catches only fleeting glances of the figure. She can't be sure but she thinks they might even be naked. There are slight impressions in the grass, like footprints. And as she nears the blue water the grass thins out to reveal an orangey-brown soil with distinct human footprints, prints of bare feet, leading down into the water.

"Whoever it is is definitely human," says Sam, "and possibly not wearing any clothes. Someone's about to go for a swim in the water, I think." She points out the footprints.

Just to be safe, Jojo runs his own internal scans to make sure he isn't malfunctioning. It seems apparent that this is only affecting the lifeforms but he wonders how they got infected.

"Please keep your suits on, no matter how enticing everything looks out there. We are on the surface of Titan and anything you see that is inconsistent with that fact should cause you pause." He calls to the others over the suit radio.

Nicole watches from the rover. She keeps an eye on the ‘radar’ screen for any strange blips.
“Moses, keep your helmet on; that’s an order!

Sam, don’t go any further as I can’t see you; wait there for the figures to come to you.”
“They must be aware of us by now.” She thinks.

"Understood," says Sam, holding her position and keeping her shotgun ready, watching the figure carefully.

Isabella walks around towards the rear of the surface rover. She is obscured from view by the bulk of the vehicle. 'I'm going to try and open the rear hold doors' she says.

Watching from the rover, Nicole doesn't see anything unusual on the sensors, she can pick up the rover, Sam, Moses, and Isabella. Hang on. That is strange. There's no signal being reflected by the trees on any electromagnetic wavelength that she can read on the sensors. But they're definitely there, she can see them. That's visible light being reflected surely?

Still crouching down in the snow, Moses mutters something that weakly transmits over the suit radios, 'So beautiful.' He continues to twist the helmet of his surface suit and it visibly moves, a small spurt of vapour escaping from the seal.

Sam can't be sure, but from the bubbles and the ripples in the water she thinks the figure has gone under the surface. It is difficult to see too far down from this position. She'd need to go nearer the water to get a better look.

Glancing behind her she sees Moses continuing to crouch down in the snow. He mutters something, 'So beautiful' and unscrews his helmet. Taking great gasps of air as the dappled sunlight falls across his face. He smiles.

As expected, Jojo's internal diagnostics show that he is operating at, well if not exactly optimum functioning given his recent experiences, at least as well as could be expected and with no signs of any major malfunction or systems error.

Still crouching down in the snow, Moses mutters something that weakly transmits over the suit radios, 'So beautiful.' He continues to twist the helmet of his surface suit and it visibly moves, apparently breaking the seal as a white frosty rime creeps across the inside of his visor.

"I can't see the figure any more," Sam calls back. "Looks like whoever it is dove into the water."

“I think this is all an illusion; the scanners aren’t picking any of it up. And, merde! Sam, Jojo, Isabella, get to Moses fast! He’s going to take his helmet off!”
If Nicole is nearest she will try to get to Moses in time herself.

"He just took it off," replies Sam, heading over to Moses, "but he looks okay."

Jojo can do nothing more than watch as Moses removes his helmet. He knows what is going to happen next.

"Moses, don't do it!" He says over the radio but he knows it's going to be too late.

Nicole hurries across the bright green grass towards Moses. It all looks so idyllic and yet the sensors can’t lie, whatever Sam says.

Nicole bounds across the distance to Moses in ungainly loping steps. Moses twists off his helmet, pulls it over his head, and lets it fall slowly to the surface.

Removing his helmet in a haze of vapour, Moses gives Nicole a smile.

OOC:   If you'd like to try and get Moses's helmet back on roll a Zero G test of average difficulty.

Moses looks completely unperturbed at the sight of Nicole barreling across the surface towards him. He reaches out a hand to Sam, 'Come on Sam the air's so clear. Feel the sun on your skin...'

As Moses lifts his helmet over his head Jojo sees a patina of frost start to form on his face, which has a blank, almost idiotic grin.

"Nicole said not to take our helmets off," Sam tells Moses. "There may be oxygen to breathe, but who knows what else is in this air? How did it even get here?"

“Moses, no!” Nicole grabs the helmet as it rolls away from Her smiling friend and turns back to slam it on his head but...

Zero G 20. roll: 91

"Here, let me get that for you," says Sam, scooping up the helmet and handing it back.

Zero/Low-G roll (50% skill) to retrieve the helmet:
d%

Jojo watches Moses, waiting for the inevitable.

What will they see when Moses expires? He wonders.

Nicole grabs the fallen helmet from the ground and tries to jam it back onto Moses's suit. But the unfamiliar movement in the constraining environment of the surface suit and in the very low gravity of Titan proves to be more difficult than she anticipates and as she awkwardly tries to orient the helmet the right way up it slips from her grasp and gently spirals down.

Sam smoothly intercepts the helmet before it touches the surface and casually hands it to Moses who does not react. His hands remain by his sides.

Moses is immobile. His expression stupid, blank, unmoving. His skin looks like it is covered in a rash, or burns, coated with a thin layer of frost that gives him a bluish hue. There are crisp flakes of frozen methane in his eyelashes and eyebrows. It is clear that Moses has flash frozen in the deep cold of Titan.

OOC:   SAN roll to see him freeze - 0/1d4

Moses just stares at Sam as she holds out his helmet, a stupid, blank expression on his face.

From behind her Sam can hear a splashing sound, like someone is in the water.

"Do I have to do everything myself?" Sam asks Moses, putting the helmet back on his head. "Sounds like our friend is splashing around in the water."

Sam screws the helmet back onto Moses's suit, but he doesn't react.

As Sam is slipping the helmet over Moses's head the rim strikes his nose which shears off and drifts down to the ground to embed into the methane snow. In the indentation left behind in his face the white of bone is visible.

Sanity 94
1d100

Jojo watches as Moses freezes to death once the seal of his helmet is broken. He continues to watch dispassionately as Nicole and then Sam replace his helmet. It was almost comical how they were reacting to his death. He clicks on his radio.

"There will be time to play in the snow when we are at the waystation. Remember that we need to stop them from destroying us and everyone else on this planet to deal with whatever this is. Get back in the rover and let's go!"

"Moses?" asks Sam when he doesn't move. "Hey, are you okay?"

“He’s dead.” Nicole says dispassionately. “Nothing we can do, let’s go.”
She turns and walks back to the rover. The visor hides her expression.

San roll: 10

"How can he be dead?" asks Sam, trying to guide Moses back to the rover.

Nicole turns back,
“Sam, leave him!” She reaches down to pull Sam away from Moses.
“He was hallucinating. All this grass; it doesn’t exist. It only affects us humans, Jojo and the scanners are immune; they are playing with our minds, don’t you see?”

Moses continues to have his stupefied expression as Sam pulls him towards the rover. Instead of moving he tumbles face-first into the orange snow.

Inside the other rover a hand scrapes the window clear and Isabella's face appears. Over the radio she says, 'Rover's abandoned, nothing in here.' As she looks out onto Moses's body her voice rises, 'What the hell is going on?'

Sam can still hear the sound of somebody in the water. And now something else, at first a whisper, hoarse and sibilant, like many, struggling voices, then synchronising as the volume grows, a single rasping voice. It's coming from the water, but also, somehow, seems to be inside her head. 'Come. Come to me. In the water. Join us.'

"Did you hear that?" asks Sam. "They're telling me to join them in the water. Moses, stop that." She tries to get him back on his feet.

Jojo is getting impatient with the others outside. They really are on some pretty serious time constraints.

"Would you please get inside the rover. We need to get to the waystation and we've already investigated the abandoned rover. If you insist on bringing Moses in, you will have to carry him on board as he is no longer able to move on his own." Jojo says over the radio.

"Moses is dead. He removed his helmet and you kicked it around on the ground before you put it back on his head. He's dead! He finishes emphatically.

“Jojo, I’m with you but I think Sam is still hallucinating.”
“Sam! His f*cking nose has just fallen off! Moses. Is. Dead!” Nicole screams at Sam, grabs her with both hands, shakes her and tries to propel Sam towards the rover.
“Isabella, can you help me or we’ll lose Sam too.”

"Dead or alive, we can't just leave him here," says Sam. She tries to bring Moses back to the rover, his weight being less a problem than his bulk in the low gravity.

“He’s just going to be a liability once he warms up.” Nicole grumbles but if it will speed things up she’ll help Sam manhandle the body into the rover.

Nicole helps Sam to drag Moses by his arms towards their rover, while Jojo watches from inside. Isabella scrabbles to exit the rear of the abandoned rover and bounds across to help them. She arrives around about the time that Nicole feels an odd cracking sensation and the forearm she's tugging on seems to disarticulate from the rest of the body, and she finds she's hauling Moses more by the material of his suit.

Isabella, who has just been watching them until now, lets out a gargled shriek over the radio and visibly vomits into the interior of her suit, splattering the visor.

The splashing sound seems more distant now, but she can still hear the voice, grating, penetrating her mind until she struggles to focus on anything else, her own thoughts even. 'Come back to us, the Crystalliser of Dreams, the Swimmer in the Darkness. Look across the fifth-dimensional gulf and see your reflection.'

Sanity 45%: 1d100 61

"I...think I'm going crazy," says Sam, shaking her head. "The voice won't leave me alone."

"Voice? What voice?" Jojo looks Sam over and moves to his medical bag. "I think you should take a sedative." He says to Sam and takes a pill out and hands it to her.

"I think you need a complete diagnostic," says Sam. "You just said Moses died because he took his helmet off, and now you want me take off mine so I can swallow that?"

“Just get in the rover and let’s get going.” Nicole bundles the Body unceremoniously into the back of the rover.
“Let’s first see if the effects wear off once we’re away from this accursed place.” She says quietly to Jojo.
“Now, who’s going to drive?”

"Don't look at me," says Sam as she boards the rover. "I'm crazy, remember?"

As the others load Moses's body into the rover, Isabella just stands there in the snow, pieces of vomit dripping down the inside of her visor. 'Eugh...What. The. Fuck. Just happened?'

People need to wear these suits for sustained periods of time. So they have built in water and nutritional distribution through a tube that can be accessed by the mouth and sucked on. If necessary there is a way to add something to the nutrient system, and with the suit wearer's consent, there's an access point where something small like a tablet or capsule could be introduced. Getting the dosing right of something like a sedative would be tricky as you'd need to include the distribution volume of the suit itself (a hard Medicine roll), although you'd be more likely to under or over sedate rather than kill someone unless it went really wrong. I presume Jojo brought his medical bag, that would have things like a basic sedative.

"I don't even know any more," says Sam.

“Just get on board, Isabella and then you can get cleaned up. I’ll drive.”
Nicole has no special skills but she’ll do her best. She climbs over to the driver’s seat and starts flicking buttons to prepare to leave.

Sorry, I thought once we were in the rover and it was sealed, we could travel without our helmets on.

"I don't mean you need to take your own helmet off, just that you consent to me putting the sedative into your nutrient distribution system so that you can calm down a bit." Jojo responds. "You're obviously overwrought and hearing voices is a clear sign that you need something to help you relax."

"No thank you," says Sam to Jojo. "I really don't want any more dreams."

Nicole glances at Sam and then gives a worried look to Jojo; they are losing team members and can’t afford another casualty.
She puts the rover into gear and starts driving towards Waystation.

After Isabella stumbles back into the rover, Nicole immediately closes the external doors and starts driving away from the abandoned rover, which sits lonely in the middle of a featureless patch of methane snow about twenty metres from a channel of glassy black liquid methane.

Isabella purges her helmet and something pretty unpleasant looking gets vented into the back of the rover to splatter over the walls. She scrambles over to Moses's body and starts jabbing at the control panel on his suit. 'There's no life signs. What happened. What the hell happened. Doctor Johnson, can't you do something?'

Let's have a Drive (Auto) or Navigation roll to see what direction Nicole heads off in.

Titan's surface looks as barren as ever, no signs of trees or grass or water.

"They're gone!" exclaims Sam. "The water, the trees - all gone!"

'There's no life signs. What happened. What the hell happened. Doctor Johnson, can't you do something?'

"I'm sorry but I'm only a doctor, I cannot bring people back to life." Jojo replies. "I tried to warn him."

"They're gone!" exclaims Sam. "The water, the trees - all gone!"

"They were never really there. The voice in your head is the thing you need to worry about now."

“Just as well you didn’t go for a paddle in that stream, Sam; it was liquid methane.
From now on; we back everything up with a scanner and if the machines don’t sense it we don’t believe it. Okay?
Now, I assume we continue in this direction for Waystation. Anyone else like to check the map for me?”
Nicole concentrates on picking the best route as the rover continues across the landscape.

Drive (20) roll: 50

"We can't trust machines either," says Sam, trying not to look at Jojo. "They can be infected too. Look what happened to CENTRAL. I'm not hearing the voice any more, at least."

Nicole has to divert a little from the direction they were travelling in order to avoid the dark rivers of methane that perforate the flat orange plane. By the time she is able to turn back towards the direction they had been travelling she has lost her bearings.

In the back of the rover Isabella is thumping the walls, 'And why the fuck is he dead, what did you do?'

Anyone apart from Nicole can roll Navigate

"Didn't we already pass that rock formation?" asks Sam. "I can't be sure. They all look the same to me."

Navigate roll (10% base skill) to find Waystation:
d%

Navigate 10
1d100

Hard Success

Jojo looks up and then at the rover instruments.

"I think you need to be bearing in that direction." He points to what he has calculated to the best route to the Waystation.

Nicole looks at Jojo with relief and turns the rover in the direction indicated.
“Maybe you could give Isabella something to calm her before she knocks a hole through the wall.” She then says.

With Jojo's calculations, Nicole quickly gets the rover back on the route to Waystation. Sam's pretty sure they're going the wrong way but no one seems to be listening to her at the moment.

Tiring of thumping around in the back, Isabella stomps up to the cab and collapses into her seat in the front, next to Nicole. 'So no one's going to tell me what the fuck is going on, is that right?' She stands up again and starts moving around the confined cabin, knocking into things, like she's looking for something.

"I would, if I knew myself," says Sam.

Nicole watches where she is driving but says,
“First they messed with CENTRAL. They hooked what was left of Steinmann up to it, somehow. So they can manipulate computers and organics. As far as I see it.
Back there they got to all of us to a lesser, and to Moses, a greater extent. I guess he saw the flora, thought there was air and took his helmet off. Instant death.”
Nicole guides the rover between two methane rivers.
“Luckily I saw the rover’s scanners weren’t picking any of it up. And Jojo could see the truth of it too of course.
“Virgil and Moses have gone. But we can learn valuable lessons from them- so their deaths aren’t in vain.
“From Virgil; that we should stick together as a team...” Nicole wonders how Kiara is getting on.
“And from Moses; that we must be more careful than ever; that an attack can be of any form.”

"I concur with what Nicole says. I might add that we have notified corporate and that unless we can get this under control, they will not hesitate to destroy the colony, therefore, we are under threat of termination if we cannot get to the bottom of this...." Jojo adds, "even if it kills us to do so."

"The Company may try to kill us anyway," says Sam, "either in case we're infected or just to keep us quiet. This situation could be an embarrassment to them, if word got out."

“We may be on Company payroll but they don’t own our lives. And we don’t owe them anything either if they cast us off. Talk about caught between a rock and a hard place.” Nicole adds. “I don’t know what’s worse; aliens or the corporation.”

Eventually Isabella stops her searching and sinks down into a chair. 'This is so fucked up. I didn't see anything. No trees. Just the rover.' She makes her way over to the driving seats. 'You're right, we need to stick together. Figure out what's going on and find a way off this rock without the company icing us.' She starts jabbing at the rover controls, 'You're overrevving it, you'll blow the axle' she grumbles at Nicole.

The radio crackles, then goes silent, a few second later it crackles again and begins to resolve itself into a voice, echoey and distant. 'Mayday, mayday, come in Barnard's Rest, come in Barnard's Rest, do you read me?'

"Want me to answer it?" asks Sam.

“Yes, I think so. Can you track the origin? I hope it’s not Kiara- or a trap. But wherever it is, we can’t divert; we’ve got to get to Waystation as soon as we can.”
Nicole tries to avoid crunching the gears or over-revving.

Sam nods and tries to trace the transmission while she answers it: "We read you, who are you and what's the problem?"

'This is Sergeant David Montrose of the Colonial Security Service. In Copter 3 coming in hot from Pumping Station 6. Main engines damaged, tail rotor malfunctioning, low on fuel...'

Sam tries to locate the origin of the transmission but it is difficult, it seems to skip about between different frequencies and she can't get a fix on it.

Try a Computer Use roll to localise the transmission

"Can you give us your exact position and bearing?" asks Sam as she traces the transmission. When she finishes speaking, she turns off the microphone so the person on the other end cannot hear her. "The last I heard, Sergeant Montrose ate a shotgun. It's a trick."

Computer Use roll (55% skill) to track the transmission:
d%

“Well remembered, Sam. He sounds so human though, how are they doing it?” Nicole shakes her head in amazement.
“Look, when we see Kiara, we must somehow test her before we trust her; it’s awful to say it but we don’t know if she’s been got.”
Nicole steers the rover carefully over a natural bridge of rock and then continues.
“What do you suppose they expect our response to the mayday to be?”

"Probably with computers," says Sam. "There are all sorts of audio recordings of his voice available. It probably would be easy for a computer to imitate him, and we already know computers can be infected. I think they expect us to tell them we're on our way to help them, so we'll say that after they respond. We're heading toward Waystation anyway, if that's where the signal is truly coming from."

“So much for a surprise visit.” Nicole mutters. “Can we raise Kiara at all?”

"I'll try to raise her once I'm done with this conversation," says Sam.

"Why must we participate in this ruse?" Jojo says. "We know it can't be Montrose so we should just ignore this transmission as it will likely only put us in danger."

Back over the radio they hear, 'Transmitting my current position but I'm moving fast on a direct vector to the colony' and within a second or two Isabella notes, 'We've received a data packet - identifying now - it says it is from Sergeant Montrose, it gives a position over the middle of Ligeia Mare.'

By triangulating the different frequencies and using a learning algorithm to predict when it will skip around across the bandwidth, Sam is able to pin down the source of the voice transmission to somewhere in the area that they have identified as being Waystation

"The signal's coming from the area of Waystation," says Sam. "Should we reply and tell the voice we're heading toward it? Whoever it is might get suspicious if we just cut off communications."

Is the signal moving or stationary?

“You could just reply, ‘Crrrrch... losing signal crrrrch.’” And then don’t say anything else. As Jojo says.” Smiles Nicole.

"All right, I'll try that," says Sam, and proceeds to do so.

The signal continues to transmit from the coordinates of Waystation, but skipping between frequencies. The source of the transmission isn't moving.

Sam sends some vague static, and in response they hear, 'Hello, hello, can you still hear me. This is Sergeant David Montrose of the Colonial Security Service. I am in Copter 3 over Ligeia Mare coming in fast and hot from Pumping Station 6. Emergency landing protocols initiated, this is going to be a bumpy ride...' Then the signal goes dead.

While Nicole knows that voice simulation is pretty advanced, and she knows David Montrose is dead, it really does sound a lot like him. Like when she used to know him. Not that wreck of a man she met for the last time in Barnard's Rest

“I know you”ll think me mad, ha ha, but that really does sound like Montrose.”
She spins the wheel and puts her foot down on the direction of the signal at Waystation.
“Sam, tell him to hang on, we’re coming!”

"Like I said, a computer probably did it," says Sam. "Montrose is dead. But I'll do that." She gets back on the communicator. "Hang on, we're on our way," she says.

Jojo looks at Nicole critically. "Try to keep yourself together. We all saw Montrose at the station and we know that can't be him on the radio. Don't let yourself get fooled."

Nicole concentrates on driving but through gritted teeth she says,
“Yes, but was that actually Montrose we saw at the station? I’ve known him a long time and that man back at the colony was totally different; him but no personality. Now this, this sounds more like how I remember him.”
Nicole thinks back fondly of the man she once knew.

"Could he have been an android?" asks Sam.

Nicole cocks an eye at Jojo. “No; David had personality. Has.
“I always wondered if Virgil was an Android though.
“But I see where you are going; they could have made an android to take David’s place and that was destroyed. And now David’s escaped from wherever they’ve been holding him!”

"Exactly," says Sam. "But why would the real Montrose send his location as being over Ligeia Mare when he was sending from Waystation?"

“Maybe he is trying to deceive his captors, but surely he’d know they can trace the signal back. It really sounds like he’s flying too and yet the signal is stationary. What is he really doing?
“Sam, can you pull up a map? Let’s see how far to Waystation we’ve still got to go and where David says he is on Ligela Mare.”

Is Ligela Mare the big area between all the pumping stations? The one we are crossing now?

Sam brings up the map on the navigation console.

The map of Ligeia Mare is projected onto the main display:


Sam displays a marker for the source of the transmission, at the north west of the map, coming from the location they have identified as Waystation, about fifteen kilometres back from the shore of Ligeia Mare, the great methane sea. Right in the middle of Ligeia Mare, between Waystation and the Benedict's Rest Colony itself, she has also displayed a marker indicating the coordinates transmitted by 'Montrose'. It is hundreds of kilometres away from the rover's current position just off the north edge of the map, travelling along the shore of Ligeia Mare.

While they're talking Isabella continues to drive the rover towards Waystation, 'We still going to Waystation, right? A few more hours at least. You reckon Kiara made it?'

Ligeia Mare is a massive sea of liquid methane. The black area on the map above. It is surrounded by rocky land covered in orange methane snow. The rover is currently travelling between Pumping Station 5 and Waystation along the land at the northern edge of the map (well, just beyond the edge of the map).

Despite being an android himself, Jojo is no expert on cybernetics. However, what he does know, as a doctor, and having seen what was left of Montrose's body, is that he certainly wasn't an android. Given a lot of his companions also saw Montrose's body too, and Nicole even saw him shoot himself, he's starting to have some doubts about their competence and/or sanity.

"Yeah, we can't turn back now," says Sam. She tries to contact Kiara.

“I hope David’s at Waystation and not crashing into that sea of methane.” Nicole mutters. “Yes, let’s get there.” She replies to Isabella, glad to have a break from the driving.

Sam gets a response over the radio, 'Yeah, it’s me! Um, I mean, affirmative...You all ok? What’s your ETA?'

"We are going to the Waystation to determine what is going on. While I appreciate your speculation that Montrose could still be alive somehow, I assure you that it would not be feasible for someone create an android to duplicate an actual person to the extent that they would be functionally indistinguishable from the person." Jojo says with annoyance. "We are dealing with a heretofore unknown alien life form that is infiltrating and taking over people. What is more likely is that this life form is able to access the memories and individual patterns of speech and behavior such that when one individual organism is destroyed, another can take it's place."

“Okay, okay; no need to get your solenoids in a twist.”
Nicole retorts.
“We’ll just have to be ready for anything. Just don’t shoot David Montrose on sight, okay?”

"What is our ETA?" she asks the others before speaking to Kiara. "Moses isn't. He took off his helmet and..."

'Gonna be another couple of hours at least' says Isabella, 'What's she found there?' Then she adds, 'And make sure it's really her.'

'What!? Why the hell did he do that?' exclaims the voice over the radio.

"We need to make sure it's really you," says Sam. "We've gotten some strange transmissions. Before we left for Waystation, we prearranged a password. What is it?"

Jojo will shut up and listen, contemplating what they will encounter when they get to the Waystation.

"I wonder if I can trust any of them." He mutters quietly to himself.

'Um, of course it's me!' comes the exclamation over the radio. 'And we didn't arrange any password that I can remember.'

"Okay, then it's really you," says Sam. "We got a transmission earlier from someone claiming to be Sergeant Montrose. You know, the dead guy?"

"Right, we'll talk more when we arrive," says Sam. "It'll be at least another couple of hours."

"Okay, we'll keep you posted," says Sam.

"How much longer before we arrive?" Jojo asks the people up front.

Day 3
13th March 2189
00:30 Earth Central European Time
Waystation, Titan

The rest of the journey to Waystation is monotonous but uneventful. It takes several more hours as Isabella had warned them. Occasionally, Sam thinks she sees something in her peripheral vision, almost like something flying, like a bird, but when she turns her head to look there is nothing there. Approaching the location of Waystation there's no sign of any construction along the shoreline, no railings or walkways, no silver pumps, no tubing snaking into the sea, it is clearly not a pumping station. Turning inland, away from the smooth beach-like shore of Ligeia Mare, with its inlets and bays, something starts to become visible in the distance.



The silhouette of a mobile derrick is visible from miles away across the flat landscape and it takes some time to approach. Several metallic prefabricated buildings emerge as the rover closes the distance. To the east, multiple gigantic storage silos, they must be at least twenty metres tall. To the south and west more prefabs. Separated from the main structures there is a watch tower beside a landing strip. And on the landing strip is a shuttle in Richter Dynamics markings, beside it the smaller outline of a silver copter.

"Looks like someone else came here besides Kiara," says Sam. "Let's find her first." She uses the communicator to try to contact Kiara.

Sam tries to hail the copter but there's no answer. She pings the transponder and confirms its the one from the colony that Kiara was travelling in. Trying a broader frequency handshake all she can get is static except for on the very edge of the usual channels. There's something, a whining sound, repeating in a cyclical pattern, speeding up and rising in pitch until reaching a crescendo and then starting over again.

"Looks like we're going to have to get out and look for her," says Sam. "We can check out the vehicles first."

“That noise; it’s not code is it? Can we decipher it or will it take too long?”
Nicole looks up at the derrick,
“Are they drilling for something? Whatever it is there’s a lot of it; look at the size of those silos! Let’s be ready before we go out; weapons loaded, we can’t trust anybody or anything; we need to rely on our scanners and if we get separated we should meet back here at the landing pad. Anything else?”

"Let me take a look," says Sam, examining the noise and trying to determine how long it would take to decipher a signal, if there is one.

Jojo listens to the static with the others. "We were just talking to her. Why won't she answer?"

He looks at the Richter shuttle. "I think we should investigate the shuttle first. It may be our way off world."

"Yeah," says Sam. "We just need some way to keep the Company from shooting us down. Once we board the shuttle and check out the logs, we may be able to determine who exactly came here and why."

“Let’s get that shuttle ready to fly at a moment’s notice.”
Nicole leads the way over to the shuttle, keeping a good look out all around.

I’ve lost track of what weapons we’ve got. Can we take all of them?!