By the waning years of the 22nd century, humanity has expanded beyond Earth, establishing colonies on Mars, Ceres, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn; the latter of these being largely penal or mining colonies, taking advantage of the isolation and mineral wealth of these moons. One such colony, known as Benedict’s Rest, was established on the shores of the north polar sea of Ligeia Mare on the moon Titan, in the year 2169. Originally a penal colony that used convict labor to harvest liquid methane, Benedict’s Rest was bought out by a German energy conglomerate, Richter Dynamics, and expanded; now, in 2189, contract, or “free” miners outnumber convicts 5 to 1—158 free miners to 31 convicts.
The colony’s productivity, formerly the highest of any Richter colony site, has dropped 19% in the last month with no reasonable explanation provided. In the same period, the colony medic, Dr. Henry Holzer, has died; the administration has been vague regarding cause, though it has been intimated that he committed suicide. Over the objections of colony administrator James Kingsley, Richter Dynamics has sent a team of corporate troubleshooters to investigate these two issues and make recommendations to revive productivity.
Day 3
13th March 2189
02:00 Earth Central European Time
Waystation, Titan
Jojo approaches the pit and locates one of the ladders hammered into the ice. He turns and begins to climb down the rungs into the darkness. The throbbing noise becoming louder and the blue glow brighter the deeper he goes. It takes him a few minutes of steady climbing to reach the bottom of the crater. Turning to take it in he can see that there is a rim of sloping methane ice that has been dug out to expose a flat surface that juts out the centre of the pit at an oblique angle. It is smooth and black, like basalt, and the blue glow appears to be coming directly from the material itself.
It is strange that he couldn't see all this from above, but now Jojo notices power cables running down the side of the pit from the surface, there are string lights hanging from the ladder to the middle of the glowing black structure. The centre of the black surface is covered with a white pressure dome.
Jojo clambers down the methane ice slope towards the black structure. Around the pressure dome is a collection of heating elements, cutting equipment, and site worklights. Through the translucent material of the pressure dome, he can see that there seems to be some kind of opening in the black surface, an area where the blue glow is fainter.
Despite being only a few hundred metres away Jojo is unable to raise the others on his suit radio. It's just static, well, static and that rhythmic throbbing which he can detect in his mechanoreceptors and auditory processors as originating in the external environment, but also unscramble from the whine of the radio.
Jojo walks up the incline of the smooth black stone towards the opening. It is concealed beneath the translucent plastic of a pressure dome, taped down onto the surface of the stone, lit by a number of worklights. There is sort of short vestibule, not quite an airlock since it only facilitates passive gas exchange. Jojo unzips the outer flap and closes it up. He unzips the inner door and enters the pressure dome proper. He seals the flap behind him since he doesn't want to vent the interior of this structure, particularly if there are humans inside. Not that it affects him, but Jojo notes that his suit has detected sufficient oxygen levels for human respiration but the carbon dioxide is far too high for them to breathe. Jojo can't see any sign of gas exchangers and presumes whatever is making the oxygen is deeper inside this structure.
The dome itself is circular and has a diameter around five metres. At its centre is a rectangular hole in the stone about three metres at its longest. There's no obvious door or anything else that indicates how it might be sealed. Some sort of plastic-runged ladder is attached to the stone with ultrastrong tape and hangs inside the opening. Around the outside of the opening on the back stone surface are two concentric patterns. The inner one consists of several rows or columns of small hexagonal shapes etched into the stone. Many have arms coming off to make six-sided star-shapes, while some have only one or two arms, and others lack one or two arms from the star. The outer pattern is a series of sculpted scenes carved in bas relief. They depict strange six-limbed creatures with a disconcerting frog or squid-like appearance. It is not entirely clear what they're doing from the scenes depicted except that stars seem to be prominent in the background and the figures are carrying various rods and sceptres.
Take 1/1d6 SAN loss after a Sanity check for seeing an alien artefact up close.
Roll Art or Archaeology regarding the carvings, roll Science (Physics) or a hard Own Language for info on the hexagonal script, and roll regular Science (Planetary) or hard Science (Chemistry) to find out about the stone structure.
Maybe it's the damage to his system or maybe it's just how alien it is, but Jojo cannot even make an educated guess about what he's looking at. He briefly considers going back up but decides to explore a bit more. He heads deeper inside the structure, looking for the source of the oxygen.
Life is a tragedy to those who feel
Life is a comedy to those who think
Life is a fantasy to those who game
Jojo steps through the rectangular opening and climbs down the rungs of the ladder. He drops the last few feet onto the sloping floor which is smooth and glassy. The moment he enters the throbbing noise stops abruptly. He's in a rectangular tunnel or corridor, some three metres wide and four metres up to the opening above. The walls are as smooth as the floor except for a frieze running along the length, both sides, as far as his eye can see. More of the six-limbed squid-creatures carved in bas relief. The tunnel continues forward and upwards, or backwards and downwards. Thick ropes of electrical and data cables dangle down through the opening above and continue in both directions. Dull strings of floor lights weakly illuminate the ground.
Roll Low/Zero G to see how Jojo manages on the slippy, sloping floor
Jojo lands comfortably on his feet and looks around before deciding to follow the sloping corridor down. He keeps a cautious eye on his surroundings, especially the cables running along the ceiling. After having encountered the alien life form in the vents, he doesn't want to be surprised again.
Life is a tragedy to those who feel
Life is a comedy to those who think
Life is a fantasy to those who game
After his elegant featherlight landing, Jojo expertly traverses the sloping corridor. His foothold is so secure that he is able to take in his surroundings at leisure. It is impressive how the frieze of squid-thing figures doesn't seem to repeat, and there are no tools marks, each figure smoothly carved out of the black rock. Now he's seen enough of the figures he can see there is a certain stylised character yet the carvings also have a naturalistic quality as well, like they're depicting something seen directly. Art is not really his area of interest but he would say that they were the product of a culturally advanced civilisation, he thinks of Ancient Greece or Rome. The odd hexagonal patterns seem to have sixty four different permutations of the star-like arms. This suggests to Jojo either some kind of number system or maybe an alphabetic language. Obviously he is unable to determine the meaning but it is reassuring to think of these creatures as being something like the beings on Earth. He doesn't have enough data to determine whether this is some kind of ancient relic of a pre-spacefaring species or the signs of an extra-solar race visiting our solar system.
After a few minutes of walking downwards, deeper into the structure, the corridor opens up to reveal a larger chamber. The low level string lighting is supplemented by a number of site lamps illuminating the open space. There are six odd curved structures arising from the glassy surface of the floor, their purpose is impossible to determine but each one has a kind of semicircular recess. In one of these recesses there is something reclining. It is long, two, two and a half metres even. He moves closer to get a better look. In overall form it looks like a giant frog or a squid, grey-green in colour, just like the creatures in the carvings. As good as the sculptures are, he can see so much more detail in the flesh. It has a smooth, bony cranium with articulated cephalopod eyes and a sharp, beak-like mouth fringed with fronds. Six long tentacle-like limbs, the upper ones near the head are broad like a mantis with serrated claws, the smaller pairs lower down the body are tipped in pointed hardened cones. The creature's torso is segmented and chitinous like a shell, contrasting with the head and limbs which look shrivelled, mummified even.
Jojo is a doctor, accustomed to seeing all kinds of gruesome sights. And as a android he's hardly unaware of the possibility of intellegences other than humans. But still, there's something compelling but vaguely grotesque about seeing such an alien visage. He has a feeling he's had only once before. He'd call it 'unease' and immediately his memory banks access the recordings of the almost lethal attack in the Administrative Building. For a moment he recoils, self-preservation subroutines activated without any conscious intervention. But rapidly his higher processing systems identify that whatever this creature is, it is different from the thing that attacked him back in Barnard's Rest. He didn't see much of the creature, but it was a being of crystal claws and rock-like shards. The body before him seems all too organic.
Jojo will record the carvings that he cannot understand for later interpretation as he moves down the hallway. Upon reaching the alien, he is overwhelmed by strange subroutines that he doesn't quite understand but is able to override them. He begins first a visual examination of the creature, trying to catalogue everything he can.
"I wonder if this relates to the spores infestation." He thinks to himself. "It's obviously not related to the crystalline creature."
Life is a tragedy to those who feel
Life is a comedy to those who think
Life is a fantasy to those who game
Leaning in towards the squid-creature, Jojo begins a systematic visual scan, starting at the bottom and working up. It certainly doesn't resemble what he has seen of the crystal creature, it seems more like a giant insect, with the torso a kind of elongated and segmented shell while the limbs are more fleshy, but tipped with chitinous claws and cones. At least, the limbs would be more fleshy if they didn't seem shrivelled and mummified. He suspects that whatever this is, it has been here for a long time. Although the creature is reclining on what he decides is its back, it is not clear if it is usually bipedal or whether it walks on the four lower cone-tipped limbs, the upper claws are presumably the main appendages, ending in broad chitinous claws that are serrated down the inside. The head and face are utterly alien yet recognisable, bulbous eyes with a narrow letter-box pupil protruding from the sides of the elongated, smooth cranium, a bit like a squid or an octopus, but more solid and leathery in appearance. The mouthparts look like a short curved beak, like a squid or a parrot, surrounded by short, shrivelled tentacle-like fronds, redolent of a sea anemone. The creature resembles nothing Jojo has seen before. yet, every part of it has resonances in the terrestrial organisms of Earth.
Roll a hard Medicine or standard Science (Biology) to try and make sense of the creature
Jojo is able to thoroughly document the alien life form and he knows that this find needs more detailed attention. Richter will want this to be returned. He looks for a way to transport this mummified creature to the shuttle upstairs. He will need some rope or a sack or even a box to carry it up the ladder.
Life is a tragedy to those who feel
Life is a comedy to those who think
Life is a fantasy to those who game
The more he examines it the more convinced Jojo is that this is a carbon-based lifeform, unrelated to the silicate cells he extracted from Montrose. Yet, there are certain aspects of it that trigger records in his recent memory banks, the six-limbed structure with the pointed lower limbs and upper serrated claws, he accesses and replays the attack in Kingsley's office. There's that feeling again, that sense of 'unease,' like something is standing behind him. He almost turns involuntarily but focuses on the details of the playback. He feels the sensation of being seized from behind again. Unlike a human his memory is clear and unattenuated, the pain as fresh now as it was at the time. Still, as an android he is able to isolate and compartmentalise the affective component to analyse the tactile sensations directly. Spiked claw-like appendages gripping his shoulders, sharper spikes penetrating either side of his lower back. That oily odour of acid and complex hydrocarbons. The sound, immediately behind him, no, behind and above, click-click-click. For a moment Jojo finds himself caught in the moment, reliving the memory, then he snaps back into the present. The creature that attacked him gripped him with at least four limbs, implying at least six limbs if it has bilateral symmetry. Upper claw-like limbs, lower pointed appendages, and whatever it uses to stand on. He rewinds the memory back to the tapping noise, it is regular, he analyses the pattern, four limbs, so the creature either has eight limbs, four for walking and four for interacting with the environment or possibly the middle-two limbs are used for both and it has six-limbs. Assuming the clicking comes from a cephalic region he estimates it to be 2.4-2.6m tall. Obviously he doesn't have sufficient data to draw any firm conclusions but there is certainly a parallel between the creature that attacked him and the one lying before him, at least in terms of basic body layout.
All the more reason to take a sample to study he thinks. Looking around he can't find any rope or sack to use. There are some power cables and string-lights, although he's not sure he wants to go cutting through them if they're still carrying power. Standing back Jojo looks over the creature, trying to calculate the optimal points to lift and carry it. His olfactory sensors register something. Hydrogen sulphide, nitrate diamines, the volatile gases of putrefaction. He cautiously pokes a leg of the creature, despite its leathery appearance it has a yielding consistency and his finger pierces through the outer layer releases a waft of further organic gases. Despite its mummified surface this body is decaying rapidly. He suspects that the sub-zero temperatures and lack of water or oxygen had helped to preserve the body until Richter Dynamics began warming and oxygenating the atmosphere of the alien structure. It was unlikely he was going to get this body out in anything like one piece.
Jojo stands there looking around and contemplating what to do. It seems that there is nothing to transport the body with and by the smell, it wouldn't last long even if he could get some of it out. He makes a mental note to continue looking for something as he explores this area. He will try to document the machinery and any control systems in this area. In his examination of the alien, he takes note of the way the alien is situated and looks to see if any of the other areas are similar.
Are the other curved structures coming out of the floor with the semicircular recesses able to be accessed? If so, I will try to emulate how the alien is oriented and see if I can't turn on any systems.
Life is a tragedy to those who feel
Life is a comedy to those who think
Life is a fantasy to those who game
All the curved structures look the same, with a semicircular recess like the one the decomposing alien creature is lying in. Jojo approaches the nearest empty one and tries to lie down in the space, emulating the orientation of the body as best he can given his rather shorter stature and lack of limbs.
Jojo goes to one of the other... control pods... and tries to emulate the alien's position. Despite his best efforts, he just cannot contort his body into the proper shape which might register to the ship. Either that or it's so long unused that it no longer works at all.
"Perhaps it needs power." He thinks to himself.
Jojo decides to continue following the light cables.
Life is a tragedy to those who feel
Life is a comedy to those who think
Life is a fantasy to those who game
Jojo continues to follow the lights and cables. Twisting and turning through various corridors and junctions. Always following the lights. Ever downwards. The corridors maintain their same monotonous blackness, the only differentiation the bas relief carvings and the hexagonal pattern.
While he has no idea what the hexagonal symbols mean, Jojo logs them in order to be able to analyse them later, and, perhaps more importantly, retrace his steps back to the surface if necessary. He also records the carved figures and takes the opportunity for a deeper analysis. The scenes have changed from the entrance, when there were uninterpretable vistas of stars and figures carrying rods and sceptres. Down here the images have a more mundane quality, they depict what he can only conclude are cities, and what he thinks may represent ritualistic battles or warfare, again, with rods and sceptres prominent. He's not sure if these represent weapons of some kind or maybe something more abstract. Judging from the progression of the carvings, Jojo surmises that he might be looking at a history of this people, starting from their possibly mythical origins, and continuing to document the rise of their civilisation.
As he proceeds down the hallway, Jojo pauses to contemplate the tale that is being represented here... in an excavation on Titan. This is ground breaking but also so unexpected. Who are these creatures and where did they come from? He also wonders why the others haven't come down here yet. It's obvious that this is the root of the abnormality that is present on Titan.
Life is a tragedy to those who feel
Life is a comedy to those who think
Life is a fantasy to those who game
Jojo is lost in thought contemplating the history of these lost people, the significance of the discovery, the meaning for pre-existing theories about the origins of life in the universe. He is so preoccupied that he doesn't hear the sound of footsteps or see the lights until the figure is almost upon him. The bright lamps of the Titan surface suit temporarily blind him.
