Play@YSDC

Day 2
12th March 2189
05:30 Earth Central European Time
Barnard's Rest Colony, Titan

As the door swings open Marshal Favre moves into Kingsley's office, sweeping her pistol from side to side. Her face one of intense concentration. Virgil steps inside the door frame and behind him Sam and Kiara look on.

Within the room, just inside the door, Dr Johnson is kneeling down beside what looks like a conference table tipped on its side. His arms bent and resting on the floor, head hanging down. Protruding from the centre of his chest is a jagged columnar fragment of rock or crystal. The shard is multifaceted and pearlescent in the patches where it is not oozing with blue fluid and a thicker white substance. A stub of crystal is visible sticking out of his back. More of the blue liquid covers Jojo's shirt and wells from his mouth, dripping into a pool on the floor. His clothing is torn around the shoulders and stained further.

Nicole looks down at Jojo, seemingly unfazed, 'What the 'ell happened to you?'

Anyone passing Mechanical Repair or Science - Physics,The blue liquid is hydrodynamic fluid, found primarily in high-end robotics.

OOC,Sam, Kiara, and Virgil will need to roll Sanity on seeing the state of Jojo - SAN loss 0/1d3

"He's an android!" gasps Sam. "That's hyrdodynamic fluid." This is even more disturbing to her than the thought that this had happened to a human, but she barely keeps it together.

Science (physics) 60 extreme pass,Rolled an 11 https://www.dholeshouse.org/Tools/DiceVerifier?RID=c322a352-f812-45fc-94de-250b2b2e99fe

SAN 64 pass,Rolled 28 https://www.dholeshouse.org/Tools/DiceVerifier?RID=e4aa4890-f8ad-4558-a156-ff7bf8fe0d21

Kiara states, fascinated, at Jojo.

“The workmanship is astounding...”, she whispers, momentarily forgetting that, when she saw him last, the doctor was a living, breathing, human being.

Ooc, SAN 50 roll: 19. Mech Eng 10 roll: 60

“An android. Bloody typical.” Virgil mutters sarcastically. “What’s the white stuff?”

Having glanced at Jojo’s body he then starts looking carefully around the room, especially at the ceiling, but doesn’t stray too far from the main door.

Jojo,Jojo is still 'alive', he's on 1HP and he has a major wound but he's conscious and still operating, just.

Everyone,Most people don't like synths. They usually don't quite look human but close enough to be unsettling. They're not supposed to be able to hurt humans, their programming shouldn't allow it, but that's little solace to the victims of the Io Mutiny for a start.

Kiara,It's far from Kiara's specialist area but she keeps up with some of the research literature and trade press and she is impressed by how human-like Jojo looks. He's top-end, probably a recent model, maybe even an AH-3000, statistically shown to be essentially infallible. Synthetics, androids like Jojo are much stronger than humans, and it looks like someone has really given him a going over, if he's still functioning it is only just. It might be possible to do some repairs if he is still operational. Otherwise he might have stored something useful in his auxiliary memory, which can be removed or analysed externally. Kiara knows that androids are very long lived and most are under contract to a corporation for a considerable duration. Their core programming means they cannot cause serious harm or, by ommission of action, allow serious harm to come to a human being.

Virgil,Virgil doesn't like synthetics, he doesn't trust them, they have allegiances to their corporate employer that are...difficult to negotiate. Looking around, one of the ventilation ducts at the far side of the room appears to be missing its grille. Beneath it there seems to be someone in a colourful patterned shirt slumped in a swivel chair. They're moving.

Anyone passing Spot Hidden,One of the ventilation ducts at the far side of the room appears to be missing its grille. Beneath it there seems to be someone in a colourful patterned shirt slumped in a swivel chair. They're moving.

Jojo lifts his head slightly to look at the others. He opens his mouth to speak but only manages to drool more hydrodynamic fluid. The effort drains him and he lets his head droop back down again, silently contemplating the shard in his chest.

Sam only has eyes for the creepy sight before her. "Should I fix him?" she asks. "It?"

Totally ignoring Jojo, and keeping a careful eye above, Virgil sidles over to the far side of the room. He bends down to a figure in a colourful shirt,
“Kingsley?” He says and puts his hand gently on the shirt.

Ooc, I may be posting a bit intermittently this week.

Spot hidden 37 fail,Rolled 44

Like Sam, Kiara is also absorbed in the android and thus barely registers Virgil.

“This is a serious piece of high-end kit. We should certainly try to repair it, or at least extract the backup memory and find out why it’s here.

"Right," says Sam. "I'll handle the physical parts, and you can get the computer bits in working order." She sets to work on repairing the physical damage, with priority to Jojo's speech center.

Computer use 65 pass, Rolled 55 https://www.dholeshouse.org/Tools/DiceVerifier?RID=6277ace6-3358-4eb9-a81e-905d6944515d

Kiara nods and sets to work.

Kiara and Sam can see that there is extensive damage to Jojo. He has lost a lot of hydrodynamic fluid and there is major destruction to his chest and shoulders. Where the shard of crystal penetrates his body there must be catastrophic internal injuries, likely even compromising his endoskeleton and essential subsystems. It is not going to be possible to repair him here. Usually androids are repaired in a cybernetic lab, like a cross between an advanced engineering facility and a medical centre. It might be possible to do some basic work using a combination of tools from the Engineering Centre and the Medical Clinic. But first they're going to need to remove that lump of rock.

Sam & Kiara,Roll either Spot Hidden or Science - Chemistry

Jojo,Jojo can resist them trying to poke and prod him, he can act normally now

As Virgil reaches out for the figure in the chair a hand shoots up and grabs his wrist. The man looks up, it is indeed Administrator Kingsley, his colourful shirt covered in blood and bulging in an odd way. Under his cap, Kingsley gives Virgil a twisted smile. His face is pale and strangely mottled. 'Change of plans' he hisses, breath stale but almost sweet, like rotting fruit.

Virgil,Roll Spot Hidden

Sam notices something.

Science (chemistry) 50 hard pass,Rolled 18 https://www.dholeshouse.org/Tools/DiceVerifier?RID=26f751a4-dc57-4bc8-ab14-60e6e550c5e4

As does Kiara.

Disgusted, Virgil tries to pull his hand away.

Spot hidden, 50 roll: 46

Virgil,Kingsley's shirt bulges in a strange, misshapen way, and Virgil thinks he catches sight of something under the shirt, a lump of something with regular straight edges, flat geometric faces, glistening with a kaleidoscope of colours

Sam & Kiara,The viscous white substance on the crystal shard doesn't look right. It doesn't move right. It seems to be slowly flowing, like it is being extruded from unseen holes along the length of the rocky fragment. It isn't just dripping down, it also seems to be flowing up. The gravity on Titan is low, but even then that isn't right

While Virgil talks to Kingsley and Sam and Kiara examine Jojo, Nicole is pacing the room, handgun still drawn. She seems agitated. 'Why is there a concealed synth on this investigation, and what happened to it?' Moses has been standing silently at the rear of the room. Not saying anything or showing any signs of emotion. Finally he says 'This isn't right. This isn't what I signed up for. what's going on?'

At this point two more people arrive in the room, Isabella and Li. Isabella blurts out, 'What the actual fuck?'

"I was looking for words to express my thoughts," says Sam. "Those will do nicely. I don't know what this white stuff is, exactly, but it's moving up the crystal, not just down it. That's...not natural. Not that any of this is. I think we have to consider the possibility that...the synth is...contaminated."

"JoooooJooooo" Jojo's words come out in bubbles. He attempts to stand but is unsteady with all the damage.

Ever the scientist, Kiara ignores the hubbub around her and concentrates on Jojo. Agreeing with Sam, she steps smartly away from the android.

“He’s contaminated alright.”

She jabs some keys on her datapad.

“Jojo, can you hear me? Can you connect wirelessly to my device so I can access your memory files?”

Virgil crouches down and whispers.

Kingsley, What happened to you? Where has it gone?