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Compucast stalks into the room.
In a firm voice he says "WE know you are in here and freezing.".
He pivots towards the sound, his staff ready for battle. Peering in that direction he suggests "Come out now. We will take you back to your care-givers. You cannot survive these temperatures long without protection."
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"Everyone, relax. They are just kids, probably lost, and we don't know that they have had anything to do with this mess. You guys are sure they are here?" Mustachio, not seeing them, takes his cues from the others.
He calls out, "Children! We have been sent by the Starfinder Society. There is nothing to fear. Come on out, and we will get you warmed up and a couple of autographs from yours truly."
Mustachio activates his subdermal implant, making his allegiance to the Starfinder Society clear, at least to those close enough to see.
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The android walks into the center of the room and speaks to the corner from whence she heard a sound. "Come, children. We have the famous ACTOR Mustachio! " Her head tilts. Human children like... The pale head turns back. "And ice cream! "
Assuming the actor can handle the babysitting, Breq turns and looks for a thermostat or environmental control terminal.
With little delay after Compucast, Mustachio and Breq's friendly words, two young human boys come scrambling out from behind the crates in the corner. The younger one, probably no older than 5 or 6, has snot and tears running down his face in equal measure. He starts bawling and dashes towards Mustachio, wrapping his arms and legs around one of the actor's legs.
The other child is only a couple of years older, though he stands back, far more wary than the younger one. 'S not our fault! T-the doors and lights just turned off by themselves. This b-bucket of junk-" he stamps a foot on the floor "-trapped us in here when we were playing." Story straight, he puffs out his chest, as if daring these strangers to try to contradict him. Shivers running through his body ruin the show of defiance.
Breq's inspection of the room for environmental controls is fruitless. If there are any here, they're well hidden.
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"C'mon, boys. Let's step out in the hallway and let the other Starfinder Society heroes do their job. While we wait, I'll tell you the tale of the "The Dog and his Lashunta", an excellent film starring myself as Neighbor #2."
Mustachio guides the children out of the room and into the hallway, where he regales them with a story about a robot dog who finds his way home after being abandoned in the Drift.
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"Our people once had sexual dimorphism, but as technology advanced and we came to an accord with the formians, it became less important. Now we choose our phenotypes based on our own wishes, regardless of gender," Hesperrio adds to the conversation on lashuntas.
"Yes, let's get someone to come take you back to your parents," Hesperrio says to the children.
He signals Fitch on the communication unit. "We found a pair of children down here. We're still investigating the fault, but someone should come get these little ones."
Mustachio's warm demeanor and energetic storytelling manage to get both children to lower their guard. The little one stops sniffling long enough to stare upward at the actor in awe (he's still clinging to Mustachio's leg though). After swallowing a couple of times he says "W-we found a doggy too! An eee-lian doggy! It had more than this many legs!" The little kid shows Mustachio both his hands, fingers outstretched.
The older child follows Mustachio out into the hall as well, seemingly on the brink of crying. "W-we didn't mean to do anything wrong mister. The wormy-an we found just looked like he was lost! We thought we would find him a home here. Take care of him. They don't let us have pets in day care. Please don't tell our dad!" His eyes go wide at the idea that their dad might find out. "We didn't do anything!"
When Compucast starts heading to the west exit of the room, the older kid's eyes go even wider "UMMM MISTER LIZARDMAN -" He turns bright red. "D-D-DONT GO THAT WAY 'COS WORMY-AN GOT REALLY UPSET AND THEN WE WANTED TO CALM HIM DOWN BUT HE DIDNT WANT TO LISTEN TO US AND WAS JUST GOING EVERYWHERE AND WE COULDNT CATCH HIM SO WE MIGHT HAVE ACCIDENTALLY NOT ON PURPOSE MADE THE FOAMY SPRAYERS SPRAY HIM IF HE TRIED TO LEAVE HIS HOUSE AND HE GOT SPRAYED ONCE AND THEN STAYED INSIDE BUT IF YOU GO THROUGH THERE YOULL GET SPRAYED TOO AND GETTING SPRAYED ISNT NICE BECAUSE THE FOAM IS ALL GROSS AND STICKY WE KNOW BECAUSE I GOT SPRAYED A BIT AND ITS STILL ON MY SHOE AND MY DAD IS GONNA BE MAD-" He cuts off, gasping for air, and then hides behind Mustachio.
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Meanwhile, Hesperrio contacts Fitch and hears "Kids!? I thought I built the walls of the pen tall enough to-" *cough* "- Good job finding them recruit! Are they the reason we have a blackout down there?" Fitch's voice sounds more distant for a moment "Oi! Klikx, can you go down to E-deck and pick up some lost kids?" Coming back to you, Fitch says "Alright, day-care pickup is on the way."
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"Boys, it sounds like a dangerous creature you found. You are safe now, but you shouldn't sneak away from your caretakers. You could have gotten hurt!"
Meanwhile, he gaze drifts over to Compucast failing in his dealings with the sprayers and he snickers a bit. Serves that pompous theater-hater right.
He calls out, "Oi! Vesk! Hurry it up over there! Are we going to stay down here all day? It's just a little foam!"
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Rynner turns to the children and asks, "Can you describe the....worm-y...in more detail? In addition, can you explain how you rigged the foam sprayers?"
He then turn his attention to the childrens' contraption.
If the children describe the creature, Rynner attempts to access his long term data storage to recall any information he may have on said life form.
Compucast moves in first to examine the doorway. With the aid of the children's description he spots a sprayer in the ceiling for a fire extinguishing system along with a pair of thermal sensors to detect heat. As he reaches up to disable them, a third thermal sensor detects the warmth of his armor. With a loud the sprayer spits out gallon after gallon of fire retardant foam!
Both of the kids cringe as Compucast's attempt sets off the fire suppressant system. After the foam clears, Breq and Rynner step in and quickly disable the system before it can go off a second time. The two of them notice that the sensors have been adjusted to be extra sensitive.
The older boy quietly says "S-sorry..." before he answers the questions about the alien. "Ummm, the wormy-an is like a really excited doggy, but like a bug with a lot of legs? It goes really fast and likes to climb. I never saw an alien like it, and my dad says I've seen a lot of aliens because he works for the Way-finders." To the question about the foam sprayers, he answers "There's a compuper in the Wormy-an's house that let us do it. We would have changed it back, honest! But the wormy-an broke it..." He seems to realize he's not doing himself any favors with this answer and clams up.
Rynner, you suspect that either the kids' description is faulty or this is an unknown species. You're pretty confident in your knowledge of bug-like life forms.
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At the last second, Compucast notes the nozzle and the pipe starting to pump, and he jumps sideways. He turns and glares at the children. "Little ones, what if you had accidently triggered this yourself?"
He turns his eyes toward Mustachio and pointedly rolls them backward. Then, gripping his battlestaff, the Vesk Warrior (for so he sees himself) steps into the next room.
"Hello. Doggy, buggy, alien? Are you here?"
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Breq follows, offering a cautionary word. "This is certainly a Questions first situation. While disgusting, I doubt that trap would have stopped anything with violence on the mind. Most likely we are dealing with some confused, but non-threatening life form. " She does not draw any weapons as she enters.
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Mustachio remains back with the children until day care arrives, but is listening intently for signs of battle.
He notes to the kids, "This reminds me of a film I starred in, "Arms and Loaded". The cute little pet seems innocent at first, but then it proceeds to viciously dismember and eat the entire crew."
He hesitates for a second, and then says, "Uhhhh.... That one is probably too old for you; ignore what I just said. Let me tell you how "The Dog and His Lashunta" ends, and if you hear screaming and cries of agony and utter pain from the other room, we'll just move down the hallway a little bit more.
Compucast forges ahead and finds that E-40-909 consists of two adjoining chambers. Four large containment capsules fill the northern room, three of which hold stasis-locked objects, including a tablet, a strange curved sword, and an odd spiral of bioluminescent coral. A fourth capsule looks like it must have at some point been full of liquid, but it now lies in shattered pieces upon the icy floor.
The southern room contains several desks, each inlaid with a computer terminal. Once of those terminals is sparking with electricity and its surface is covered in a multitude of scratches and gouges, as if a dozen clawed creatures had a dance party on top of it. The rest seem to be running in emergency power mode and retain only some basic functions.
The scratches can be found elsewhere in the room as well, but they seem most heavily clustered around the entrances to the room's air circulation vents (of which there are half a dozen). Keeping an ear to a vent reveals a faint scritching coming from deep inside; it seems this 'wormy-an' is somewhere in there.
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Rynner studies the room while trying tonconcieve of a plan. "I can attempt to restore functionality to the computers, but will likely being little use in drawing out the creature, though.....perhaps turning on the ventilation will force creature out. As well, there may be information about the creature if we access the data system."
If the party agrees, Rynner will try to sneak into the room and bring the systems back online.
Rynner isn't bothered by anything as he sneaks his way through the room. He finds the computer terminals to be responsive despite their low-power state. While he doesn't find any information on the creature during a quick scan of the terminal file structure (it seems these terminals predate this area being used as auxiliary storage), he does find controls for the ventilation system. Toggling those controls sends warm air flooding through the ducts. Immediately afterwards, the whole group starts to hear panicked scritching and banging as something starts moving around up there.
Storyn and Hesperrio follow up by tracking the creature and its noises (and thoughts too, though Hesperrio finds that the creature's thoughts are too alien to get more than a vague sense of panic from them). By following after the creature and tapping at the walls of the room, the two of them direct it towards one of the open vents.
It drops down to the floor of the southern room and you finally get a good look at it. While the kids were right in describing it as a dog sized bug, it looks a lot more like a centipede than any other bug. Of course, no centipede (giant or not) has black tentacles all along its back, each one tipped in either a white disk or red ring. The alien creature seems to shudder (Hesperrio senses its surface thoughts filling with fear), and then it shoots off like a bullet. Its tiny legs send it climbing over every surface in the room at mach speed.
At least it doesn't go back in the vents.
Breq leaps about and chases the lightning fast alien, and while they're unable to catch it, they're certainly wearing the bug-shaped creature down. Storyn's efforts to frighten it into Breq's path are less successful. Rather than driving it into the android's hands, the intimidating Vesk merely spurs the creature into a greater panic!
Rynner looks through the terminal, and while he doesn't find anything to directly capture the creature, he does toggle the thermostat to warm enough that the icy floors defrost.
In the hallway, the older of the two kids says "Do you need to help them catch the wormy-an, Mister Mustachio? We can wait here!"
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Mustachio puts his hand on the older boys shoulder. "That's right, Billy. Don't know if that is your name but I think it fits. They clearly need the leading man. Stay here, but if you see anything scary you come right in and get me. Don't run down the hallway or anything like that."
Mustachio walks into the terminus room to lend a hand.
He calls out in his most soothing voice, kneeling down, and using a mix of common, Castrovelian, and Eoxian, "Come friend, settle down. I'm sure we can help you. Are you trapped? Do you need help getting back home?"
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Compucast looks around the room, and fetches several boxes. Rummaging in his bag he takes out a half eaten ration, and then, noticing the chewed cables, substitues an old battery. Putting the battery in the box in the middle of the floor he steps away, waiting to see if the bait is taken.
"There are more ways to catch a criminal than plain force."
The alien gets spooked by the harsh whispers of Mustachio's eoxian speech, but when Compucast sets out a box and battery it approaches close enough to inspect the offering. It wavers in place for a moment, turning white disks to observe each of you. While it doesn't go inside the box, the more peaceful option seems to have calmed it down some more.
It stops running around madly, but keeps its distance from each of you. It still seems wary.
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"I hypnotize that if it consumes electricity, then a fluctuation in voltage may be attractive to it." ponders Compucast.,
"Perhaps as humans sleep after a good meal, but convincing it to consume interesting energy sources..."
He grabs a battery and looks around for a computer terminal and then goes to work trying to create an attractive meal for the odd bug.
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Mustachio is confused as to why the lovely dulcet tones of Eoxian are grating on the alien's ears. He gives it another try, this time in common only.
In his smoothest voice, he says, "C'mon little guy. Just calm down, take a bite of your delicious snack."
Mustachio also waves Storyn back, who seems to be causing quite a bit of the agitation.
After: "I'm not sure he likes Common either, friends and Compucast."