{I'm sure we can find it with the Acreon's sensors} Aureum communicates from behind Diedre, trying to be reassuring. Even so, her telepathic voice reveals some anxiety about the missing shuttle.
She turns to the androids and looks them up and down, focusing briefly on Clara-b's injury, and asks, "Uh — can you make it across?"
Diedre smiles back at Aureum, thankful for the reassurance.
She opens her mouth as if to say something, but then just nods - her ears pinking slightly.
As she finishes climbing over the chasm between the ships, Lauren makes her way along the exterior of the ship using her boot clamps and zero-g suit's connectors. Entering the ship, she cycles the airlock and rushes to the bridge, enjoying the sudden return of her native blind sense as she enters the fluid of the surrounding atmosphere and familiar gravity.
"If I make it through this, all I ask is that I never have to deal with vacuum or zero-g again, Triune. Please?" she silently prays to herself as she runs the length of the ship back to the bridge.
From the Bridge, she sits back down in the Science Officers station and begins scanning and checking the logs.
Entiren follows slightly behind the party, catching anyone who looks to be losing their grip on the walls. However, upon seeing that The Hippocampus is no longer parked just outside the opening in the Drift Rock, he launches himself off into space, twisting around as he looks in all directions for the shuttle.
As the group works their way up the tethers to the Acreon, he will fly alongside them, again keeping an eye on everyone to make sure they don't float off into space. At one point, he looks over towards the two goblins (mostly to be sure that they aren't trying anything ridiculous to try and get away again). With a thought suddenly occurring to him, he turns to the group and opens a group comm channel. Gesturing in the direction of the goblins, he says "I am going to go check if either of those two noticed what happened to The Hippocampus. Perhaps they saw something." That said, he turns around and maneuvers close to the floating goblins. He ensures to remain out of reach of them, keeping at least ten feet of space in between them. He will attempt to open a comm channel with them.
It takes nearly an hour, but the Starfinders and their android captives make it to the questionable safety of the Acreon without too much difficulty. The Acreon's sensors aren't designed to passively track nearby ships, but Lauren is able to co-opt the data logs from the debris-avoidance system to determine that the Hippocampus departed roughly five minutes after they entered the Drift Rock.
As Entiren attempts to open a comm channel to the goblins, they continue to gesticulate wildly, pointing at Entiren, the Drift Rock, and where the Hippocampus was parked. It appears that their ramshackle space suits do not have communication capabilities.
"Well that just ... sucks," is Diedre's response on hearing that their shuttle has been gone that long.
"Can we open a channel to the station with the comms here?" She points at the communication gear on the bridge. "Maybe someone at the station knows where it went."
She gathers her emotions and shoves them down. "Nothing to be done for it. Everyone grab a bunk and get some rest. We still need to find out what ... that ... is." She looks around her for a moment before gesturing in the direction she thinks the Drift Rock is, relative to the mining ship.
Giving the equivalent of a sigh in space, Entiren will connect his mind with one of the goblins . Looking at them, he mouths the words as he sends them. {Do you know what happened to our ship? Think reply.}
Lauren attempts to hail Station Security, and if she makes contact, she hands the mic over to Captain Diedre.
Miraj holsters his gun but keeps the Claras in view as the group works back to the Acreon. Once back he recommends finding an empty room and locking the androids in, if possible. Otherwise, he'll insist the group takes turns keeping watch on them. He waits patiently for Lauren to radio the station for information on the shuttle.
{I don't think it's necessary to imprison them} Aureum says, channeling her telepathy so only her fellow Starfinders can hear. She continues, speaking aloud now so Clara-a and -b can hear. "I agree we should keep a watch, but I really doubt they'll try anything,"
With a pointed glance at the androids, she finishes, "They know they won't beat us."
Miraj shrugs at Aureum's assessment of the threat the Claras pose, but he looks skeptical as well. "Zee goblins knew zat too, but zey still tried to cause trouble." Then he pulled out his comm unit, set it to photograph mode, and took several pictures of the Clara's.
He checks up on Lauren's progress getting a response to the inquiry about the fate of the shuttle.
While waiting, he uploads the photos and composes a message to send to McFeeblerduchy about the attack on the shuttle and the Clara's role in that as well as how they came to apprehend them. But he holds off sending it until the group learns what may have happened to the shuttle.
"That's because goblins are just barely a mental step above gerbils," Diedre grumbles.
{Do you know what happened to our ship? Think reply.}
The goblin's eyes go wide. {"WHATAREYOUDOINGINMYHEADBIGCOWMAN??"}
Telepathing with the goblins is... a unique challenge, to say the least, but eventually Entiren gets an understanding that the Hippocampus left - apparently at its own volition - a short time after the Starfinders disappeared into the Drift Rock.
Lauren attempts to hail Station Security, and if she makes contact, she hands the mic over to Captain Diedre.
Lauren finds that using the Acreon's comms is bizarrly difficult. She can send simple, short messages without much difficulty, but anything longer than a few seconds or any attempts to set up two-way communication are stymied by a subtle interference pattern that seems to shift too quickly to compensate for. Lauren feels confident that she's made their situation known to Station Security, but if Absalom is responding, there is no sign.
Flying back to the Acreon, Entiren will work his way through the ship up to the bridge. Once there, he will tell the others what the Goblin said happened to The Hippocampus, confirming the readings of the Acreon's sensors.
Once the conversation moves towards what to do with the Claras and the Goblins, he says "I don't think that we should lock up the Claras. I am in agreement to setting a watch, but also believe that they won't particularly try anything. Giving them their own private room would probably be a good idea as well."
Gesturing in the direction of the two floating Goblins, he continues. "As for those two, we probably shouldn't bring them back on board and leave them unattended. Knowing what they managed to do last time we did so, I wouldn't like to have them potentially running around this ship while we are asleep. However, their air will likely begin to run low soon, so we should bring them back on board for a short period to refill their life-support. Then I can put them back out in space."
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Lauren reports the messages sent to station security. "Some thing is weird is going on." She relays to the others. She checks her comm unit before proceeding. "I think we may be jellied."
"I think we may be jellied."
After briefly bringing the goblins aboard to refill their air, the Starfinders (and the Claras) bed down for the night. Lauren takes the first watch.
Lauren watches the room...
...Poorly.
"I not notice a thing."
Diedre yawns and stretches as she takes her turn watching over the stillness.
She spends part of the time composing a message to her friend Sketch, warning him to keep her mother away from the newsfeeds from Absalom Station for the next few days.
Lauren does her best to lock the door to the Claras' room. She tries to keep eyes on the main hallways of the ship, but innocuous noises keep driving her to investigate the ship's normal functions.
Just as she goes to wake up Diedre, a terrible scream sounds from the Claras' room.
When Miraj learns the radio is not working right, he stores his message just so there is a record of events should they not make it through to report on the assassins directly.
Then he gives Alice a good cleaning and makes sure she's loaded with ammo before stowing her back her bed. He dictates some into his comm unit, describing events since his last entry. Before going to sleep, he checks on the package for the ambassador in the cargo hold. He snaps a few pictures of it for the record and adds them to the file he has loaded into the ship's computer. He fights the temptation to peak under the packaging, but leaves it alone... for now.
Then he finds a place to stretch out and tries to get some sleep.
Aureum takes a bunk near the door and stretches out. She jots down some notes in her comm unit, trying to quiet her thoughts and puzzle out what everything means. Eventually, she falls asleep, her notes still resting on her chest.
Diedre jumps up at the intrusion into her dreams.
"What was that?" she says, looking around. She readies her gear as she attempts to investigate where the noise originated.
Jolted awake upon hearing the scream, Entiren will look around in an attempt to see what caused the noise. Grabbing for his laser rifle, he says to anyone within earshot "Wha... what was that? Who screamed?"
Apparently a heavy sleeper, Aureum remains blissfully unaware of anything that is happening.
Lauren tries to pry open the door with her tentacles in a rush to discover the origin of the noise. She yells over the comms as she does so, "Trouble in Claras rooms!"
After a minute of frantic fumbling, Lauren is able to pry open the door. Inside, Clara-a sits in the middle of the floor, cradling Clara-b. The second android has blank, pupil-less eyes, and the tiny lines of circuitry emitting a soft glow across Clara-a's face are black on Clara-b.
"She's... she's gone. I don't understand."
"Medicine!" Lauren yells over the comms. She lowers herself a bit, so that she's closer to eye level but still outside of the room. "What happened?" she asks the remaining android.
{"Aureum!"} Diedre's mental voice shouts at the Lashunta. {"Someone's hurt! We need first aid!}"
She makes her way over to where the Scyphozoan is examining the android.
Aureum, startled from sleep, quickly pulls herself out of bed and hurries after Diedre, nearly colliding with her and Lauren where they're stopped in front of the door. She shakes her head, forcing herself to be fully awake, and steps around them.
{Watch my back!} she says telepathically, and enters the room to kneel beside Clara-b. She hurriedly checks the android for life signs, and administers first aid if she can.
Miraj hustles to the room where the Clara-b lies stricken. Seeing Aureum and others crowded around, Miraj draws his pistol and begins prowling toward the cargo hold with Nor's package.
Both Diedre and Aureum check the android for life signs, but to no avail. Clara-b is dead. Very dead, in fact - her skin is cold to the touch. Even for an android, this is unusual.
"What happened?"
"She... she screamed. I never heard her sound like that. I woke up, and the ceiling was... rippling? I don't know. I looked down from the top bunk and she was on the floor."
Meanwhile, Miraj and Jehir start searching the other rooms within the ship. Nor's package seems undisturbed, and nothing else appears out of place.
Diedre draw her sidearm and looks nervously at the ceiling as if expecting whatever killed Clara-b to manifest at any moment.
"Does anyone known what could do something like that?" she asks, her voice trembling slightly.
"I'm sorry," Aureum says to Clara-a, a slight tremor in her voice. "We — we'll find whatever did this."
She gets up slowly, joining Diedre in looking at the ceiling, and then begins to check the rest of the room, looking for any trace of the murderer.
Inspecting the room, neither Deidre nor Aureum find any obvious sign of a creature. Aureum can't think of any creature capable of slipping in undetected like this and killing so suddenly.
"We need to establish the cause of death. We need to consider creatures that can disguise themselves or camouflage themselves. We can't rule out incorporeal creatures either. Can we rig some scanners to look for anomalies like shifts in temperature, radiation, and the like and scan the ship?"
Looking for the most likely cause of death.
Miraj will take his sword cane, turn on the spotlight and shine it at every part of the room, starting with the point where Clara-a saw the rippling. He'll poke at everything, assuming something might still be in the room disguised as a part of the room.
Lauren tries to recall anything that could have slipped past her.
"I know not the thing that did this. I saw nothing."
Entering the room, Entiren will examine the body of Clara-b while listening to Clara-a's description of what happened. While doing so, he racks his brain to see if he knows what could have done this.
Miraj is thoroughly stumped. Aside from the wounds Clara-b sustained yesterday, her body is unmarred. The room, similarly, reveals no trace of tampering or of hidden creatures.
Miraj sighs and says, "Verdrampt if I can tell vat killed her. No signs of new wounds. Iz a puzzlement. Ve had better double up zee watch und perhaps all stay in zee same room, perhaps vun of zee cargo holds. Safety in numbers, as zey say."
"Yeah," Diedre agrees nervously. "Let's do that."
Aureum looks nervous, folding her arms across her chest and glancing suspiciously around the room. She nods in agreement at Miraj's suggestion. "Clara-a, you should come too. And what about the goblins? If this — this thing is on the ship, are we leaving them out there to die?"
Shifting his weight to lean against the wall, Entiren looks at the group. "There is a chance that they could already be dead. If you remember, at the very end of the Captain's second to last video log he asked if 'something' had come from the rock. If that 'something' is what did this, then it likely would have had to pass by the goblins on its way into the Acreon."
"Sorry, but I don't feel a great sense of urgency to put myself at risk for a couple of pests that would kill us in our sleep at first opportunity," Diedre says in an uncharacteristically cold tone.
She looks away.
"Or worse."
"We should at least utilize the sensors of the Acreon to see what we can determine of them."
At the description of 'Old Garry' and the discussion of what to do with the remaining Clara and the Goblins, Laura flaps her tentacles in an exasperated gesture of confusion. There don't appear to be any right answers out here in the void.
She heads to the nearest computer station to see if, this time the internal sensors will give her anything useful. She not only attempts to scan for life signs from the goblins, but also double-checks the sensor logs to see if there's any sign of 'Old Garry' being on board. If she finds anything, she'll try to set up a ship-wide alarm in case he comes back.
After that, she reports her findings to the party, and heads to the cargo hold to bed down for the night, exhausted.
While Lauren does her thing with the computers, Miraj asks any of the technology adepts if anyone can rig our comm unit cameras into a kind of network and feed each signal into a consol one person can watch for the approach of any one through the halls. This way we could be in one place but have eyes on other parts of the ship. This is assuming the ship doesn't already have internal cameras that we can monitor in the same way.
He also suggests we set up double watches and concentrate those who need uninterrupted rest for the first and last shifts.